cuddlecity | EVENT: SWIPER, NO SWIPING!

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EVENT: SWIPER, NO SWIPING!

As the blustery winds and steady snows of January give way to the cool breezes of February, the city begins to notice strange trends amongst its volunteer citizenry: an uptick of online searches for things like flower shops and cheap romantic meals, a surprising increase in chocolate purchases (though, perhaps more surprising, no increases in consumption), and a report from the local pharmacies regarding a sudden shortage in contraceptives, of all things! Consider the administration officially flummoxed — that is, until the city's favorite and only volunteer coordinators begin to investigate further.

You see, Valentine's Day isn't quite the thing in Cadelle. Here, St Valentine never led couples in matrimony under Roman rule, and so, no time-honored capitalist dream could be established. However, the date of February the 14th is still a special one in the city — it's the day that many honor as St Trifon's Day, or "Winemaker's Day". It's a day of celebrating the first pour of the prior year's winemaking, with the first bottle of each vintage reserved for drinking with one's special someone... preferably privately, where post-drink merriment may commence uninterrupted. (Scandalous.)

Not wanting to leave out any of their volunteers from the city's special day, the volunteer coordinators have arranged a collection of meeting locations, each perfect for getting to know a potential special somebody in advance of the big day. To help people get acquainted, they've partnered with that reclusive (and anonymous) mogul behind okCuddle to add a limited time special feature for the season — that's right, a matchmaker!

Simply press the bright red button on your app's home screen to be enrolled in a Match Meeting. There are five unique locations, each offering a different experience to appeal to those who might find true love or common ground in its midst, and each location will host a different couple each day to ensure everyone has an opportunity to meet their one-and-only... or maybe just their one-night-only. (We won't judge.)

▸ Any opportunity to incite a little romantic feeling would be remiss if it didn't include the time-honored date experience: a candlelit steakhouse dinner at the city's best dining experience, DeWolfe's. Whether you're hungering for a porterhouse medium rare or a more demure airline chicken breast, the wait staff here will be more than happy to attend to any needs you may have, and delighted to disappear shortly after, providing plenty of privacy for quiet conversation and those ever-important lingering glances. Feel free to extend your night with a walk through DeWolfe's famed gardens out back, or perhaps a nightcap... the only question left, then, is their place or yours?

▸ Let The Good Times Roll offers those who enjoy athleticism and coordination an evening of nostalgic fun under twinkling lights — courtesy, of course, of the disco ball hung prominently in the center of the risk, a perfect match for the classic jams that are piped out from the speakers on each wall. Strap on a pair of rental skates, and when the lights get low, be sure to hold your honey's hand tight for that all-important couple's skate. When you're done zooming around the linoleum, be sure to try a bite of the rink's famous pizza and popsicles meal, the perfect treat for summer campers and kids at heart alike! Groovy!

▸ The Vinery, while not necessarily a classic first-date location, offers a bit of non-traditional romance with its gorgeous hill country views and a seemingly endless assortment of local blends to sample. Visitors paired up for a Match Meeting here will have the opportunity to enjoy a rarely experienced grape-stomping session, during which they'll become bonafide vinters (winemakers, for the uninitiated) and the proud recipients of a complimentary bottle of the Vinery's own St Trifon's Day special blend — the perfect reason to ask for a second date, no? (And if you don't want to wait, there's always the cover of a gazebo or the fields nearby...)

▸ Animal aficionados, fear not: the expansive nature reserve at Nahtazu offers an opportunity to get up-close and personal with your favorite wild beasts — no, not the ones in your pants — and one of the reserve's most knowledgeable guides to show you the way. Of course, since it's an hour away aboard the local trains, the city has arranged a private compartment for two, where Match Meeting attendees will enjoy a catered lunch, the perfect way to fuel for a long day of hiking, climbing, and maybe even a few jungle swings. On the way back, feel free to enjoy the plush seats for a little post-adventure cuddling... or more, we won't tell!

▸ At The Worm Hole, nerds and geeks and casual gamers alike will find plenty to shoot and score on over pints of everything from sweet ciders to dark ales. There's no shortage of games here, so if your idea of a great night out involves beating your date at Super Smush Brothers — and no, that's not a typo — you'll definitely enjoy your time here. To help set the mood, a special booth has been set aside for Match Meetings in the far corner of the room: get cozy, play some Pong, and maybe make things interesting. Strip Marco Kart, anyone?

Of course, those that opted not to sign up for the city's version of eHarmony won't be left out of all the fun! In preparation for the big day, Flora and Cornelius have put together what they're affectionally calling the single mingle: a weeklong invitation to enjoy the best in everything but romantic films and features at the local theatre. Feel free to come alone or bring a pal or two, and enjoy complimentary admission and select snacks each night — just don't let them catch you getting frisky! That's what the drive in is for!

Surprise! It's a Valentine's event that's almost not about Valentine's Day! For those of you that participated in our survey, you should have received a private message from our moderator journal with information regarding your character's match assignment by now. If you did not receive one, please let us know!

Because this event runs a little differently than many of our other events, we've opted to tweak our process a little as well. For your character's date, please locate your appropriate date and location in our BLIND DATE THREAD HERE. If it's still empty, your character has beaten their date to the punch (and maybe the free food, too). If there's already a reply, greet your date! (Pretty simple, right?) For all other threads, including pre/post date experiences, feel free to post traditional open top levels as usual!

For example: Flora may have a blind date with Cornelius on Monday at DeWolfe's, so she'll comment to the Monday thread's DeWolfe comment with her starter. This will make it easy for Cornelius to find her thread and reply. However, Flora may also be lingering outside beforehand looking nervous, or shopping in the mall the day before and looking for help in finding an outfit — these prompts can be posted as traditional open top-levels!

If you have any further questions specific to this event, we encourage you to ask away on our QUESTIONS COMMENT here in this post. If you have general questions, or prefer a more private venue, our GENERAL INBOX (and SCREENED INBOX) is always available for you. In addition, if you've got an idea for a future event, feel free to drop us a line at our EVENTS SUGGESTION POST.

Peace out, cuddle scouts!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Nearly." Huh. So Thor's moping had been for nothing. Whether or not he can expend the empathy to find that comforting is a train of thought he lets pass him by without boarding. It's not quite resentment he feels towards the Prince for flying back home like he does to seek out the bigger picture Maximoff more or less poured into his brain. No searching needed, Tony knew what was coming.

The fact that no one else seemed concerned- that he might've resented. But home is home and he didn't have the time, room, or pride to be annoyed then.

No reason to be annoyed on his behalf now. That's not how they were. Not how most of them were, and the lack of any kind of pity is the only reason Tony doesn't end the conversation then and there. "It's been a rough year on earth."

Understatement. "I still owe you a drink, don't I?"

There's no need to relate at the moment what Loki had done after discovering the death-stroke hadn't been as fatal as he (and Thor) had believed. He doesn't regret it, even now. Like it or not, Asgard itself had prospered under his rule, and the rest of the Nine Realms had been left to their own devices for the first time in millennia. What they'd chosen to do with their newfound freedom hadn't been of any interest to him.

He would never dream of pitying Stark. He knows the way pity drags across the mind like pricking claws. No one who faces him without flinching deserves that indignity.

"Has it? Only the last...two months have been somewhat eventful for me," he counters after a pause to recall the time difference, thanks to Sakaar's strange and varied influence, and he's going to elaborate but the question takes him by surprise. "Well, I never did receive it. I had thought the offer might have expired by now."

"I would've poured you one in the moment but Big and Blonde slapped a gag on you." There's no tawdry joke to follow, no teasing poke about a potential kink that might be concerning- years ago? Sure, right on the tip of his tongue, he'd had to bite one back the second Thor put the damn thing on Loki after he cuffed him up- without a helmet a lightening bolt would've fried him pretty well.

But now it's just. A wry smirk, a faint looseness to his shoulders as he pulls a flask from his hip and sets it on the table. Nothing particularly special as he's trying very hard not to fall into this vice. "So it's overdue. A Stark pays their debts. Well we try not to rack them up in the first place and I probably should bill you for the you shaped hole in my livingroom but-"

A little glimmer of the old fire and humor, there and gone. "Take a drink and call it even."

The glance to one side and little tightening of his jaw might have been a danger signal in years past, but what comes to mind is the moment after their arrival in Asgard, when Thor had handed the Tesseract to Heimdall and removed the gag again. Loki had refused to speak, of course, sheer stubborn pride propelling him as slowly as possible along the Bifrost, but what does it mean that Thor's mercy is what he remembers so clearly from that day?

"He knew what he was doing," he says quietly, watching the blue pulse of Stark's artificial assistant on her screen and not glancing up again until the long-promised drink makes its appearance. It prompts a smile, a real one, and Loki picks it up rather delicately.

"To paying debts," he says wryly, hefting it in a little toast before tipping his head back for a sizable swallow. The burn is welcome, he's always favored stronger liquors over endless ales, and he sets it back on the table. "I find it difficult to believe it did not become a conversation piece," he adds.

"Yeah, apparently it scrambles the brain about more than a little, that glowstick. Not fun." He'd had a taste, sure, back on the Helicarrier. It should've been a red flag right then and there that it wasn't ever going to work, that signing on with Shield was a bad move, that this 'team' wasn't ever actually going to come together to build anything. Bruce had it right.

A chemical mixture that creates chaos.

Loki hadn't been all that wrong either, strung out on whatever space juju made his eyes that much more blue and his skin that much more sallow. The fact that the're having a civil conversation is reason enough to shut off the soldering iron and settle back in something of a relaxed sprawl. If Loki does anything-

Not like he can do anything to stop him. Why worry?

"It was one of the last things I had fixed- if only because it made Bruce laugh. J got the whole argument on camera." It'd been beautiful- and a frightening testament to how much damage Aesir and Aesir adjacent people could take. "I actually miss when you were my biggest problem, believe it or not."

Pray you never meet the cause.

"How fortunate for you that I can be a problem once again," he says instead of asking the question foremost on his mind, what happened to you?, because that isn't...they aren't there yet. The barbs are milder than Loki had imagined, it's restful in a way to trade them, but showing concern or sympathy is too much.

"I envy you your record of the event. If only I had it captured, the moment when the beast did that to Thor," Loki says with the dreamy smile of nostalgia. It hadn't been all that long ago, a few weeks perhaps, since Thor had faced the Grandmaster's beloved champion, and it's still fresh enough in Loki's mind to make him smile every time, but he still wishes he could share it with Thor's teammates. And the people he's met here. Strangers on the street. Enemies in the midst of battle. Anyone else he comes across.

"At least you're a civilized kind of problem. Straightforward." Lying when prompted, sure, with a simple goal. None of this buddying up and stabbing in the back nonsense.

"Wait, what?!" That detached amusement burns away as Tony leans forward, all that brilliant focus brought to bear on Loki. Looking for signs of a lie (though he can't imagine what he'd get out of lying about this), signs of truth, trying to read someone he's only met once when he can't read people he's known and fought alongside for years-

"When did this happen, how did you see it, is Bruce alright-" Like Loki can answer, like Loki would answer but it's the first shred of any kind of sign that Banner's alive instead of dead on the ocean floor he's had in years.

Not taking the chance to learn more with both hands would be foolish.

Loki looks skeptical—civilized, perhaps, definitely a problem, but no one has called him straightforward in his life—but the sudden intent stare is startling. Oh yes, what had Thor said? Banner had been missing.

Well then, consider this news a gift. A peace offering, if such a thing is needed. "He's fine," he says, then considers exactly what Bruce is. "Intact, certainly. After your battle, the beast—Hulk reached a planet known as Sakaar and remained there until just before I arrived here. He was a gladiator, the beloved champion of the Grandmaster in fact, and his final bout as champion was against Thor. Sometime after that, Banner regained himself."

There's so much more that he's almost tempted to take a second drink, but instead he just leaves it there, prepared for the questions he'll likely receive in turn.

Not dead. Lost, very lost, but not dead. The relief in Tony's eyes is damn near palpable, a trembling hand combed through his hair as he tries to breathe through the rush of a weight lifted. Alive. Well. That's a welcome bit of good news in the middle of a dearth of it; though Hulk being a Gladiator probably isn't ideal.

Something he'd be willing to pay to see but- Bruce would have yet another bucket of guilt to pour into his preexisting ocean. "That's something."

Not much- but it's enough. Tony'll take it. "Is he here?"

He'd been under the impression that he was the only person from his particular slice of reality. Bruce being here- that'd be a marvel. "Or anyone else from home? Or is it just you and me?"

From home. It's almost a shock to hear it phrased like that, though he immediately realizes the fundamental truth of it, the universe they share in this place of multiverses, whatever "home" might mean. Loki watches the obvious relief and feels oddly out of place, exposed with no cause.

Thor ought to be delivering this good news, he thinks, Thor should be the one to catch his teammate up with Sakaar, with Hela. The death of Odin, the death of Asgard.

"Thor is here," he volunteers, carefully blank-faced once more. "Here returned, after being here before, so he tells me. And the Valkyrie is here now, but you haven't yet had the pleasure. I haven't seen Bruce, or anyone else we might know."

"...well it could be worse." Barnes could be here. Rogers could be here. Maximoff could be here. Any number of people that hold him accountable (rightly so or not) for any number of things could be slinking about waiting to ruin his day. Instead he gets...

The least offensive Avenger, his crazy-clever younger brother, their sidechick, and a green skinned alien. All in all it could be a lot worse. It's probably damning that he's more comfortable here and now sitting with Loki across from him that he would be sharing the same air as Rogers or most of the others right now. "SO now that you're less brainwashed and crazy-"

He can't see it as anything but that, no one just walks around looking that wrecked without having something hanging over their head. "How are you settling in to civilian life?"

"That it could." Apparently far worse, if Stark's relief is any indication. The last time they'd seen each other, he'd thrown Stark out the window of his own building. Loki will be the first to say he's recovered himself since then, but it's still curious that he is a positive outcome. What exactly have the Avengers been getting up to since he'd been sent away? Thor had spoken a little of his time with them while Loki had been in hiding, but most of their conversations on the Ark had been either nostalgic or forward-looking.

That comment earns Stark a rather skeptical look, but Loki supposes it isn't inaccurate, just blunt to the point of rudeness, which is the definition of Tony Stark. "Is that what this is?" he asks, rather theatrically picking up a hand and turning it over to examine it. A civilian hand, imagine. "I don't know," he continues, dropping his hand again and looking around the placid street scene. "Well enough. And you?"

Tact is for politicians and people who's feelings he cares about- there are few of the former here and precisely zero of the latter. It's a short list as it stands back home, one to which Loki had never been made a member.

Side effect of trying to take over the world; you get kicked off the christmas card list.

"Well you're neither prince nor warlord here. Felt apt enough. Nothing to fight other than boredom." Which is a battle in and of itself, honestly. "Can't complain. Tech's a little dated but it's nothing I can't fix."

"Yes, I can see you're doing all you can," he says, looking pointedly down at the sprawl of electronics on the table. "I was never a warlord," he continues after a moment's pause, "but I am still a prince, though Asgard is..."

Then he stops, because how does he explain? It's been easier to speak of the fate of Asgard and its people to those here who have no knowledge of his world. Stark had never seen Asgard, but he knows of it, he knows Thor, he knows at least something of Odin.

"Gone. Asgard is gone. Its people are safe, but Asgard is fallen."

"Herald of a warlord, then. However you want to spin it. Not exactly 'coming in peace' back then, were you?" It's a rhetorical question- come and gone as the situation has. They survived, New York is rebuilding, Loki is the least of their problems in the long run.

Weird thing to think, but not untrue.

He'd fiddled a bit with pulling the wires and casing back into his phone, tidying the messy technological sprawl- and Loki lays that out. It's enough to have his full attention snap up to his face, eyes dark, curious, calculating. "...That's disconcerting. How do you exactly lose a- planet? Realm. Seat of power that is that technologically advanced?"

For all the time he'd spent feeling as though he didn't fit there, and the later years he'd spent outright hating the place, it had been a strange blend of satisfaction and shock to bring about its prophesied downfall and watch it stabbed through to its very heart. But the explanation takes a little extra explaining.

"We had a sister," Loki says quietly, picking up a discarded twist of wire and drawing it through his fingers. "Hela. Goddess of death, locked away before Thor was born, never to be spoken of again, until Odin's death." So, yes, that also happened. "And if you thought I..." He laughs, shaking his head. "She would not have stopped until every world fell under her rule, drowned in blood. Her power came from Asgard, and so to defeat her, Asgard fell. Its prophesied end, Ragnarok, the sword of Surtur drove through the heart of the planet. It is not lost. It is dust, and Hela with it."

"...Aren't you and Thor prophesied to die or something? I'm not entirely up to date on my Norse mythology. Something about a giant wolf, something about the midgard serpent? Should I be keeping Thor away from snakes?" Loki he- could take or leave, honestly. He's slipped from wanting him to pay, this deep seated need for vengeance to-

Well.

Ambivalence. Civil ambivalence, but ambivalence. That is still- pretty cosmic and heavy and huge in the way that it leaves Tony quiet and still, terribly aware of how tiny and vulnerable Earth is in the grand scheme of things. How little it'd take to have the same happen back home.

How many bodies there'd be in the aftermath. "Right, take another drink. Sounds like you need it."

"No—stop. No. I have read this so-called 'mythology' since my arrival here. Stories, nothing more." Horrifying stories that have assigned him a number of monstrous children, including that giant wolf and the Midgard Serpent. The less said about his apparent offspring, the better, and handing that kind of ammunition to someone like Tony Stark? He may as well just get up and leave now, and he finds he doesn't want to.

But he won't turn down the offer of another drink. It isn't as long a swig as the first one, but the familiar burn does help. "Thank you. Thor is fine, he learned his own lesson about snakes long ago. Sakaar took his hair and Hela took his eye, but he's fine."

Loki is even growing accustomed to thinking of Thor as the rightful king of Asgard without feeling that old, ground-in anger.

"Fiction is fiction, got it." He skips past the remainder of his mythology centered questions as they've been rendered pretty damn moot; no need to worry about giant wolves and midgard serpents or anything else on top of the usual bullshit. That is something of a relief.

Even if it does mean Asgard's suddenly a kingdom of hyper durable longlived refugees. That'll be a complication for another day. Thinking about it now would give him a migraine.

"...As much as I want to know, I get the feeling I probably really don't want to know." There's that twinge of worry, unearthed from time and distance and the lingering bitterness of loss and accusation. Thor is, or was, a teammate at one point. He shouldn't be so quick to burn all his bridges. "He adapting to the depth perception change well?"

"Oh, that's a whole evening's worth of storytelling," Loki says with a sharp little smile. "I would never dream of cheapening it by giving you a summary."

There are parts Thor would likely prefer to relate himself anyway, team-related things or something. Nothing Loki is interested in. "Thus far, he seems to be managing," Loki continues with a shrug. "Much to my chagrin, I have yet to witness him walking into a door, but I can dream."

"It'd probably cost more than a few swigs of middle shelf bourbon. I'll call you back when I've got some mead finished." Item eight or nine on the to do list, developing mead or wine that actually works for people with a little more to their blood than, well. Blood.

Developing it isn't his usual bag but it's a market and he can use the money.

"Can't you just do your little light trick, move the door?"

"I could have done that when he had two eyes. That takes the fun from it. ...well, most of the fun." It would still be amusing to create an illusory door and watch Thor walk into it, but the spontaneity would be gone, and that's where the true joy lies.

The mention of mead has Loki suddenly looking thoughtful. "Your family has never been a ruling house in the North, a place called Winterfell, by chance? I have recently become acquainted with a Stark, the Lady Sansa. A distant relation?"

"Fair enough." Siblings and shenanigans- he kind of gets it. The stunts he pulled with Rhodey counted well enough back in MIT, even if they aren't related.

"Nnnno? No. I mean we've been a powerhouse in the tech community and new money in the Northeast by way of New York; pretty sure all of my father's family is still in Europe so. Maybe? It's possible. Though I don't think I've ever heard of Winterfell."

Blood, as Loki has come to realize, has very little to do with being related. Hela shares Thor's blood, but she had been nothing but an enemy, and Loki is...is only sometimes an enemy. It's different. It's complicated. But Loki is long beyond the mindset now of thinking Thor is not his brother.

"Hm. Yet another different world, perhaps. Well, it was merely a passing thought when I learned her family name." Loki waves away the waitress when she approaches and pushes back his chair to stand and brush down his suit, as if he wears them all the time. "I have no wish to overstay my welcome. Another time, Stark. I owe you an evening of storytelling."

"And I owe you another drink." Tony sits up but doesn't leave- there's still too many tweaks to make and, well. Loki's showing himself off. They'll run into each other again he's sure. It's not that large of a city.

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EVENT: SWIPER, NO SWIPING!

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