[Misti Manning]

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[attr="class","Mistipostname"]misti manning

[attr="class","Mistilightpostlyric"]So make the friendship bracelets[break]
Take the moment and taste it

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“It’s like church,” was Misti’s first observation.[break][break]

The restaurant room was more like a hall, with sloped ceilings and dimmed chandeliers hanging above them. Tables were pushed together in the centre to form one long strip, with a line of chairs on each side as if in preparation for a royal medieval dinner. All the men in attendance were lingering on one side, while the women were gathered on the other. All waiting for the event to start.[break][break]

Diana, leaning over a table to write their name tags, glanced up to raise a perfectly shaped brow at her. They were usually bushier. She really had gone all-out tonight. “What, about any of this, says ‘church’ to you?”[break][break]

“Boys on one side, girls on the other,” Misti explained, tipping her head towards the men and then at their own cluster. “Youth group. The pastor’s gearing up to come over and explain the concept of purity to us. Hopefully with a chocolate cake, to teach us the meaning of a delicious gift and how when it’s gone, we can never get it back.”[break][break]

“Har-har, you’re hilarious. Feeling cynical tonight, are we? Good luck securing a date with that attitude.”[break][break]

Misti grinned as Diana straightened and turned to attach Misti's nametag to her blouse. “I’m helping. This will help you.” Diana scoffed, so Misti nodded her head enthusiastically. “It will. You’ll look like an angel in comparison to me. It’s good cop, bad cop: speed dating edition.”[break][break]

It was also helping Diana to relax. Some criticism of the event seemed to take the pressure off, somehow, whereas reassurance would probably mount the stakes higher. Make her overthink the whole thing like she had been when she'd roped Misti into this mess.[break][break]

Misti come straight from a tutoring session, answering the distress call from Diana after another friend of theirs had dropped out, and as such Misti was wearing a green silk shirt, black trousers, and loafers; comfortable to play piano in, but still smart. Diana on the other hand wore a gorgeous lavender dress and heels, jewellery carefully chosen and makeup applied perfectly. She looked gorgeous, like she was actually on a date and this wasn't just 'interviewing prospects', and had Misti known she would be coming, she would have tried to match the effort her friend had put in.[break][break]

As it was, she wasn’t expecting anything to come of the evening. Speed-dating had never really appealed to her, somehow less so than dating apps, so she really was just there to support her friend. But… maybe, just maybe, a very small part of her was also interested in knowing what was out there – swimming around in that ‘sea of plenty fish’ she heard so much about.[break][break]

But again, officially, this was for Diana. Therefore Misiti wouldn’t have to feel embarrassed if someone accused her of looking, because she wasn’t. And she wouldn’t feel disappointed if no one was to her tastes, because this wasn’t for her.[break][break]

The first round was ‘Introductions’. The basics. Names, ages, occupations – that sort of thing. By the fifth person placed in front of her, Misti was cringing and feeling a fraction more guarded than when she’d started. So it was preferable to introduce herself in a way that she hoped would almost immediately dissuade them from any notion that she might actually be interested in them or anything about this entire night.[break][break]

“Hi, I’m Misti. I’m here as moral support for my friend.”[break][break]

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OOC: These things are generally set up for straight pairings, and I’ve written this one to be too, but if you want to throw your female character into the mix then we could say there were more women than men attending, so women are seated opposite each other sometimes c:[break][break]

[attr="class","MistilightPostTag"]Tag: open!

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[Darius Saeed]

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Tinder wasn't his thing. That much was clear. He had managed to get a few matches, but most of them were very one sided conversations or didn't result in a date. Darius wasn't super actively looking, but he did miss a relationship and dating. Mostly dating and meeting new people. So when he had seen an ad for a speed dating event, he had hesitated for a moment, but ultimately he had registered for it. There was still this stigma that speed dating was for lonely losers, but maybe he just had to accept that he was a lonely loser.[BREAK][BREAK]

The restaurant wasn't very cozy, romantic or beautiful, but he supposed it would do for a speed dating event. The atmosphere wasn't very comfortable or welcoming either. Men and women lingered on opposite sides of the hall, and so far it was just people from the same sex talking to each other because they weren't mingling with the others yet. Darius wrote himself a name tag and attached it to his sweater, checking that his sweater was neatly tucked into his pants too. He didn't want to appear sloppy. What he was wearing could probably be best described at dark academia, but Darius had no knowledge of the terms and words people used for fashion styles.[Break][break]

The first round was about to start, and everyone was finding themselves a seat. The conversations weren't much different than those he had on Tinder. Most of them were plain boring. Some of the women liked that he was born in Egypt and joked about wanting to travel there with him, but he knew none of them would actually do it. They all liked to claim they were adventurous, but most of them would never voluntarily travel outside of the USA. They all wanted to go to 'Europe', though. He wondered how many of them thought Europe was a country. [Break][break]

A few rounds later, he found himself in front of a young woman. She appeared to be of Asian heritage, but maybe her family had lived here for many generations already, so he wouldn't ask about it. He smiled at her when she introduced herself. She made a point of telling him she was here for moral support. "Nice to meet you, Misti. I'm Darius", he said kindly. "You're quite a good friend if you're willing to sit through so many rounds of speed dating just to support a friend. Would you prefer to sit in silence until this round is over, or could I still try to get to know you?" The young man chuckled and ran a hand through his curly hair. The young woman did look interesting, but he didn't want to ask her questions if she didn't really feel like talking. If that was the case, he would be a bit disappointed, though, because if everyone here was just there for moral support, he definitely wouldn't meet anyone who was interested in meeting new people.

[Break][break]He normally tried to not use his telepathy too much, but he couldn't help trying to figure out her thoughts. He could sense she didn't expect to meet anybody interesting here, but he could also sense it wasn't her intention anyway. She truly seemed to be here just for moral support. Darius hoped he could perhaps somehow change her mind. Misti did look like she had a few interesting stories up her sleeve.
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Tag: Misti Manning

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[Misti Manning]

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[attr="class","Mistipostname"]misti manning

[attr="class","Mistilightpostlyric"]So make the friendship bracelets[break]
Take the moment and taste it

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The man simply smiled, returning her greeting in a notably politer tone and introducing himself as Darius. It was somewhat disorienting to be complimented and given options on how to proceed, as Misti had half-expected whoever sat in front of her to be irritated by her dismissal and get catty about it, or to perhaps choose to ignore it altogether, asking her the generic questions or launching right into talking about themselves as if she hadn’t said anything at all.[break][break]

Whatever control she felt she’d had over the conversation had swiftly been swiped from her hands, by a calm response and her inability to know what to make of it.[break][break]

He seemed genuine. It didn’t feel like a trick – though why would it be? He was there to meet people like everyone else. Letting her decide meant he wasn’t guaranteed anything, and Misti got the sense he would respect her wishes if she did give the order to not talk to her.[break][break]

But wouldn’t that be kind of cruel? Maybe it would make him feel awkward, forced to sit across from her while the air buzzed with conversation along the rest of the table. She didn’t want to mess with his ‘flow’ and potentially ruin his chances with someone else by putting him in an uncertain mood. And considering how nervous Diana had been with backup, Misti imagined it could have been quite nerve-wracking for him to attend the event by himself. Unless, maybe he wasn’t by himself?[break][break]

Great, now she was curious. Maybe that was the trick. Acting like he wasn’t fussed either way, so she would be interested instead. That was probably kind of toxic of her, actually.[break][break]

“That’s okay, you don’t have to… sit in silence.” There was an apology on the tip of her tongue, and she had to remind herself that she’d only stated facts; she hadn’t said anything glaringly mean-spirited that needed apologising for. It was just the delivery that could use some work. Talking to strangers was always a minefield in that way, her tone and words not always matching up with her intentions. She wasn’t sure how she had half the friends she did.[break][break]

Right. Diana. Although she’d joked about being ‘bad cop’, Misti would probably be a bigger help if she didn’t automatically shut down every man who spoke to her. She could do some vetting instead. Check for red flags that Diana might miss and compare notes later, so Diana wouldn’t make a choice she would come to regret.[break][break]

Darius, based on the one thing he’d said to Misti so far, seemed okay. She liked how he dressed himself and he was admittedly handsome, with puppyish brown eyes and dark curls – but this wasn’t Disney. ‘Good looking’ didn’t mean good.[break][break]

Although she’d been homeschooled and couldn’t be completely certain, she imagined someone with his looks would have been gossiped about by the other young girls at church, if he’d attended one of Los Eurosia’s schools. For that reason, and the fact she didn’t vaguely recognise his name or face herself, she took a wild guess that he hadn’t been born locally. Maybe he’d moved there later in life. Or maybe he was simply passing through. It would suck if Diana fell for someone who left town as quickly as they’d appeared.[break][break]

Misti folded her arms on the table, shifting forward from where she'd previously been settled as far back in her chair as she physically could be. “Have you been in Los Eurosia for long? Do you live here or is this only a pitstop?” Now she vaguely sounded like passport control. Not ideal, but gathering information was more important than making an attractive first impression.[break][break]

[attr="class","MistilightPostTag"]Tag: Darius Saeed

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[Darius Saeed]

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Again he smiled at her when she said they didn't need to sit in silence. Darius nodded, glad they would talk. He definitely preferred that over an awkward silence and waiting to move to the next table. Her body language still indicated that she was somewhat reserved and hesitant to talk, but it was more inviting than it had been before. Maybe he had read too many psychology books, but it did help in situations such as this one. "I've been living here for five years now", he responded. "I used to live in Los Angeles, but I'm originally from Cairo. I moved to the United States to study, and I decided to stay here." Darius pushed a curl behind his ear and also crossed his arms on the table. "What about you?" It seemed only natural to return the question. "Los Eurosia is definitely an interesting place to live, but it seems like a lot of people just briefly pass through."
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Tag: Misti Manning

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