Can you feel the love tonight?

[highprofilerichkid]

Characters: EVERYBODY
Date: 14 February
Location: Anywhere
Situation: It's VALENTINE'S DAY! Flowers, candy, love notes, dancing, and dates... Maybe you don't have Valentine's Day on your world, but plenty of the foreigners do, and those who have found love on the turtle will be happy to tell you all about the holiday. Some of the more enthusiastic foreigners may even try to play matchmaker with their unattached fellows...
Warnings/Rating: Lovey-dovey nonsense, smooching, romance, and maybe people getting a little frisky. It is Valentine's Day, after all. Further warnings will be added if anything gets really steamy.



No plans for the big day? Feeling a little lost? Well, why don't you:

• Build a snowman together! Embrace your inner child.
• Give your lover a big box of... chocolate? Well, there's technically no chocolate in Keeliai, but maybe a kedan confectioner can whip you up something close enough. Or if you're feeling adventurous, you could go to a candy shop together and experiment with the local sweets.
• Go dancing and engage in some pan-galactic cultural exchange. Teach your partner one of the beloved dances of your home universe, like salsa, or the foxtrot, or the electric slide.
• Baby, it's cold outside. Maybe you should stay in for the day. Cook a meal together, light some candles, drink the most expensive alcohol you can afford, and take some time to appreciate each other's company. Nothing says "romance" more than fancy wine and a candlelit dinner for two.
• What better excuse to take a chance on romance? Ask out that person you've had your eye on.
• Set up your friend. You're satisfied with your relationship or lack thereof, but somebody you know is pining, so get out your bow and quiver and cupid wings and find them a potential sweetheart. What's the worst that can happen? Don't answer that.
• No date? Grab a friend and go out to a fancy dinner with each other to celebrate Singles Awareness Day. Platonic love is important too!

Comments

did someone order a pair of trash gay nerds to go

[wrathfulkhan]

Oh boy, Valentine's Day.

Gene's still not entirely sure what's going on, but he's doing his best to make this a good one for Tony. Especially given all of the recent, er, considerations. So he's stopped by a kedan florist and managed to wheedle out some nice-looking flowers without being taken for too much of a ride, and they're as fresh as they can be given the cold snap.

Tony's back in their shared room, and, feeling a weird sense of deja vu, he knocks.

Press U for Meddling Uncle.

[whitelotustile]

Iroh learned about this custom, and anything that involved making young couples feel more at home and happy was totally up his alley. So you might catch him refilling glasses and using some of his savings to pay for meals and other random acts of kindness. Or just urging you to go talk to that nice girl/guy.

Of course, if some nice person happened to look his way, he wasn't adverse to flirting up a storm, but most Foreigners were a bit young for him.

[gathersnomoss]

Zelgadis has no idea what's going on. He's just going to try to go about his normal routine and wonder about how half the Foreigners are celebrating another holiday he's never heard of.

[sonjaofyellowcomet]

Sonja saw Iroh in the Midnight Hotel kitchen serving food and other people.

"Hi, I don't think we've met. I'm Sonja, do you work in the hotel?" She bowed during her introduction.

Please wait while our operator connects you with a matchmaker.

[theideaguy]

Sokka had heard through the grapevine that Uncle Iroh was up to doing things in the Hotel from Zuko. All he had managed to get from Zuko was something about "Valentine's Day" and a lot of confused shrugs from his friend. But seeing as how Sokka knew nothing about this, it made sense to find out what sort of idea had gotten itself planted firmly in Iroh's ear.

"So... explain this tradition to me, start to back."

Arno Is Open For Business. And lonely.

[stubbornlittleshit]

Valentines Day, in and of itself, is nothing Arno is familiar with so far as customs go. He could tell you a bit about Saint Valentine but any of his observations about the saint would have very little to do with the way he's observing the celebrations among the foreigners themselves. This happens, when you come from a time and place when some holidays were not exactly celebrated yet during your lifetime. That said, among everything else, he's noticed it does seem to be a day for lovers, or at least for those you love.

THAT in particular, considering that his lover and best friend in the entire world are one and the same, has him a little mopey today, while he's paying such great interest to the festivities, perched, not on a rooftop for once, but on the back of an unhorsed wagon instead. And while he's always rooted firmly in the moment, there is a part of his mind that's still in Paris, still with Elise, and misses her so much. It's strange, considering how much of their adult lives, and the path to them were spent apart, but right now, what he wants is nothing more than one of her grins, or a barb tossed over her shoulder and...

Every red-haired person with long enough hair and the right frame gets a quick once over, even though he can't hear or see her, and the entire thing is all rather pathetic, actually. Could he use a friend? You BET he could!

[whitelotustile]

"Ah, I'm Iroh," he bowed back. "And not officially. I just like spending time around here."

Re: Please wait while our operator connects you with a matchmaker.

[whitelotustile]

"Well, I only know a bit. Something about it being a festival for those in love," Iroh said. "What else is there to know?"

[theideaguy]

"But I'm already in love," Sokka explains rather matter-of-factly. "I'm in love with someone who's not on the shell, back in Avatar World. Her name's Suki. Kind of makes it rough to celebrate this festival thing."

[sonjaofyellowcomet]

"Do you stay in the hotel too?"

[whitelotustile]

"Then perhaps you should find someone to spend time with who is in a similar situation," Iroh said reasonably. "To take your mind off not being with Suki."

[whitelotustile]

"Not as such," iroh said. "I really keep meaning to talk to the owner about that..."

[sonjaofyellowcomet]

Without any topics forthcoming, and Sonja already self-conscious about approaching a stranger to talk, she started to feel that her presence was unwelcome.

"Well, it was nice talking to you, have a nice day."

[whitelotustile]

"Perhaps I shall see you around," Iroh said.

[theideaguy]

"But I thought the day was all about celebrating love?" Sokka says. "Though I suppose..." Sokka scrunches his brow and puts a little thought about it. "I guess it couldn't huuuurt..." Though who?

Sokka LFG to raid Restaurant for epic Valentine's loot?

[theideaguy]

[OOC: Of course, the LFG here means "looking for girl," of course.]

Valentine's Day is not a day back in Avatar World. It's only something he heard about from one meddling uncle of a good friend that even suggested it to him in the first place. In any other circumstance, Sokka might have been super excited about the holiday. However, for what it's worth, he has a girlfriend off-turtle back in his world. And it's one he still cares for quite a bit despite having been here for five months. If it hadn't been for Iroh motivationally bending him ever so slightly, it would have been just that, but he was convinced that it doesn't have to be necessarily about finding a new love to replace Suki, just to find someone that was nice and perhaps getting to know her better.

And from that vantage point, he supposes that there wasn't anything necessarily wrong with that. There were still a lot of foreigners on the turtle that he didn't know, and a few of those still happened to be female. So maybe he could give it a shot. It wouldn't be a date; he'd already established that it wouldn't be anything similar to a date. That would disrespect his so-called "promise" to Suki. But he could still be nice to someone and get to know her.

And so he's in the lobby of the Midnight Hotel, looking out to see if there's someone that might strike his fancy, someone familiar yet unfamiliar. He's not certain who he's looking for, of course, but you never know.

[whitelotustile]

"I'll see if I can find someone in the same situation," Iroh said.

[sonjaofyellowcomet]

Sonja comes down from her room and into the kitchen to get breakfast.

She passes the lobby without noticing Sokka, distracted by grumbling stomach. She grabs a couple pieces of fruit and a piece of pie and heads into the dining commons.

[raavashing]

Wan was still not aware of the strange custom, but he had his own reasons for seeking out Iroh now that Tu Vishan had left the continent. It was something that he'd kept in the back of his mind for a few weeks and hadn't been ready to really think about or ask about until very recently.

"Iroh?" he spoke quietly as he approached, obviously nervous. "Could I talk to you about um... Fire Nation customs?"

Turtle Vets pretending they're not Turtle Vets for a day

[backwordscompatible]

The timing couldn't have been better.

They'd already mentioned the idea, agreed, and even had just enough spending money leftover to go through with it. It would be just like it had been before everything. Before things had started to go sour and Malicant moved in and the battle in the Dream Realm and the subsequent return and--

...well, basically, before.

Zatanna had never been one to look back, but there was a certain fondness in her eyes as she leaned against the handlebars, staring up at the blue skies with a smile as she waited for Jack to arrive. She'd sworn she would get that boy out of the Welcome Center, and it was Valentine's Day. The perfect excuse. To go along with the perfect weather, perfect plans, and absolute perfect machine rented from an increasingly friendly local shop.

Now all she needed was her perfect boyfriend.

[whitelotustile]

"Certainly!" Iroh said. "Which ones? 'Fire Nation customs' cover a lot of ground."

Given his nerves, Iroh suspected it was either 'nervous about boyfriend's family' or 'how to learn about the Fire Nations' terrible recent history without offending boyfriend's family'.

[raavashing]

"Well, uh..." start with something easy start with something easy start with something easy "...are there any customs related to... you know... courting... someone... of the royal family?"

There. Something simple. Something Wan was technically already doing. Ease into the topic.

[theideaguy]

And as if karma hadn't done enough to torment Sokka both in the past and while here on Tu Vishnu, it decided to rear its ugly little head once more and send Sonja his way. Well technically Sonja wasn't heading his way but heading a rather different way, a way that included not saying hello to him. And for a moment, that was a relief because then he could choose to actually pass up the opportunity and look for someone else.

Except then the words of Iroh came streaming back to his head: "Then perhaps you should find someone to spend time with who is in a similar situation."

He didn't think Sonja, exactly, was in a similar situation as he was, though he couldn't know for sure. So far all they had managed to talk about was politics and the weird recording device she was using to watch his sister. But perhaps... he had felt a stab of guilt at the end of their conversation...

FINE. Conscious, he'll do it.

And so after a few moments pass he follows Sonja into the dining commons and heads over to her table. "Is this seat taken?" he asks, pointing to the one opposite her.

[sonjaofyellowcomet]

"Ah-" Sonja said, acknowledging Sokka. She did a quick tally of her exact tolerance for meeting people today. It was never very high, but it was early and she hadn't meaningfully interacted with anyone in awhile, so it was as high as it would ever likely be. "...no, it's not. By all means."

"Sokka, right?" She put on her best, most polite and welcoming demeanor.

[theideaguy]

"I see you remember me," he says dully. He is remembering their first visit, and he's feeling simultaneously annoyed and sheepish by the whole thing. It's a fine pairing. But he takes the seat across from Sonja and tries to put on at least a friendly smile. "So... I..." He closes his mouth for a second in order to put down the wrong words and find the right ones again. "So we... got off on the wrong footing there... a few days ago, I think. And I figured we should try this again."