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!

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RAISE YOUR HAND.

Any questions? We've (probably) got answers!

If there's anything we can answer about this event, whether it's specific to your unique plotting dreams or more of a general gameplay inquiry, please don't hesitate to let us know! We know there's a lot to see and do, and we're here for you to make this event one from your wildest dreams... or not. Let us know, cuddlers!

— xoxo
The Cuddle City Mods

Signed up for a Match Meeting? Come find your match here!

PRE-WINEMAKER'S DAY.

While she's never heard of "Winemaker's Day," Caitlin learns quickly what it actually is and she thinks it's very sweet — maybe for her it's a little more bittersweet — that Cadelle has a Valentine's Day sort of holiday. It shouldn't surprise her, really, given the premise of her deal.

And maybe Caitlin is widowed and doesn't have a boyfriend right now, but so what? Valentine's Day always held a special place in her heart and why should she treat Winemaker's Day any differently?

So instead of moping, because she's tired of being that girl, Caitlin decides to go shopping. Maybe she'll find something perfect to wear to the Single Mingle or maybe she'll just end up window shopping and not buying a thing at all, who knows? She hasn't any concrete plans in mind, so much as she's just looking at the themed store windows. It's a neat little twist on what she's used to celebrating in February, anyway.

SINGLE MINGLE.

It does, as it turns out, feel a little counter-intuitive to Caitlin that on the week that would, at home, be Valentine's Day, the movie theater is discouraging romantic movies. Then again, that's not necessarily the theme of the holiday here, she reminds herself, and thinks it's still a really neat idea that she can go watch a bunch of movies and get snacks for free.

She goes alone just to catch the flick, but she certainly isn't averse to meeting up with someone there to sit together or setting a date to go with someone.

WILDCARD.

( have an idea of your own? toss up a starter for her! or if you want to plot ooc, give me a shout via PM or mistojen. )

(( ooc: will match your action brackets if you have a strong preference toward them. ))

    ▸ shopping

One might think someone preparing for a date would be shopping for clothes, or cologne, or getting a hair cut. This would be normal behavior, which means Reid is doing none of it.

Instead, he's mostly shopping for books. It doesn't exactly make sense given how fast he reads, but that's never stopped him before. He likes just having the books, technophone that he is, and he can also be spotted carting stacks to the used book store to do regular rounds of trade-ins almost literally every other day. On a bad week, he goes through five books a week, and that's a very bad week.

He can also be spotted sitting outside, yes, reading, fast enough to catch attention and subsequent incredulity, or in public spaces at cafes playing chess, either by himself or with any takers, including kids who are learning. Ordinarily he'd play in a park, but it's a little too chilly out right now. In his surfeit of free time, he just doesn't know what else to do with himself, and is accordingly catching up on his only two other hobbies: reading and strategy games.

    ▸ movie night

Reid is all over movie nights, given it's the right subject material. Romance isn't his taste, needless to say, and neither is action or espionage-- he has enough of that in his real life, thanks. What's left is sci fi (of course) and, well, the quirkier indie movies, which he probably attends the vast majority of. He's not exactly jumping out to socialize, though; it might be singles night but he doesn't typically initiate any social contact at movies.

Unless someone happens to be sitting precisely next to him right when he has an extraneous factoid to point out, about the movie itself, its creation, the historical context, scientific plausibility-- it could be anything, knowing Reid. Just depends on the movie.

    ▸ card games

Before or after the movies, Reid can be spotted doing the most engagingly social activity yet: running card games. He would play in them, but it feels more than a little unfair with strangers. Coworkers he'll spring his card-counting, eidetic memory, math-oriented brain on without warning, since they only bet for literal airplane peanuts (and pretzels). Strangers, he'd rather not take advantage of, so instead he runs games at request, making it obvious what he's doing even without any current takers by doing elaborate card shuffling at an empty table.

He does sleight-of-hand, too, and confidence suddenly springs from nowhere the second cards are in his hands.

"I'm from Vegas," he informs anyone who looks curious. "What do you want to play?"

Edited 2018-02-02 02:53 (UTC)

❥ shopping.

( winemaker's day, valentine's day, hallmark day — whatever you wanted to call february the 14th, it all boiled down to the same thing. if you had a person you liked, you went on a date with them; if you didn't, you either found a person to go on a date with or you wallowed in singledom for the day. given that kimberly hart has managed to find herself a person that seems reasonably likely to participate in some form of holiday observance with her, she figures she might as well be prepared.

which is why, over the course of a week, she can be found making her way through a wide variety of cadelle's retail shops in her free time. whether it's an unreasonably large selection of little black dresses in queue to be tried on — because, for once, she's going to abide by someone else's color preferences — or a pile of lace and silk to go underneath it being considered, a second opinion is always warranted; should someone catch her eye, she'll offer up a friendly: ) So what do you think?

( of course, she'd be remiss if she didn't plan for something a little more her speed, which is exactly what brings her to the warmly lit shop floor of good vibrations. there's more variety here than she admittedly knows what to do with, but she's not about to admit to that if she can help it. instead, she'll linger, fingertips tracing over shelf labels and along boxes that offer vaguely worded descriptions and explanations. her comments here are mostly to herself, but they're said aloud all the same: ) Why would anyone want something shaped like a rabbit...

❥ wildcard.

( feel free to interrupt her shopping expeditions or find her anywhere else along the city. her scooter's pretty hard to miss, and kimberly's nothing if not friendly! )

[Shopping]

[Shopping is...not really his thing. He'd left it to Etta to help Diana find clothes for a reason, and not just because he knows nothing about picking out women's clothes. He hadn't had to worry about it much before arriving here, and after his arrival, he went shopping for new clothes and spent only as much time as it took to find something comfortable.

But now that a special day is looming (even it's a different special day than the one in the world he comes from), he's in need of something nice for a date with Diana. The only real date they've had.

And he has no idea idea where to start. Someone help the poor confused man.]

Wildcard

[Find him in some other location in the city, such as Deja Brew or the library, where he's attempting to find out more about a certain war.]

[Sweet Creamery - closed to Diana]

[Ever since he'd first walked past the ice cream shop, he'd been planning to bring Diana here. He's sure she's probably eaten ice cream since that day in London, what with all of the time that has passed since then, but he had bought her her first ice cream. He wants to buy her next one, too, especially with so many more choices than the last time.]

🜞 Shopping

[ It's a hell of a time to roll into town, the natives and volunteers alike all aflutter over winemaker's day or valentines day respectively and Tony? Is content to leave them too it, taking advantage of the lack of crowds in other areas as he hits up hardware stores and electronic depots to get a miniaturized version of some kind of workable lab up and running. Repairing and reworking the armor into something decidedly nonlethal takes priority, not falling into a bottle and reminiscing over the strained ending to what could've been the best thing that ever happened to him.

No time to be maudlin, no. Tony keeps a close eye on his budget, double checks with FRIDAY as she reminds him that purchasing food is a thing he'll have to do and that costs money and might take a higher priority than a third soldering set. Bickering to thin air in the isles while being interrupted by a pleasantly wry brogue is a thing. Nothing strange to see here, move right along. At least the bruises have faded and he's unknown enough to get by in casual (but warm) clothing, even if his posture remains tense, his hands slung in his pockets or tapping idle tattoos against his shopping carts as he inspects the next bit of whatever in the store.

Which one is it this time? Oh, right. Food. This is why he grabbed a blender. ]

🜞 Movie Night

[ Coming up short on his meal budget apparently isn't going to be the end of him; sure he'll have to pick up employment (ugh, deadlines, actual work hours, being vastly overqualified for damn near everything) later in the week but the movie nights allow him to stretch what he has a little further. A lack of appetite does help. FRIDAY attempts to ping him (silently, even AI aren't allowed to talk during movies) by vibrating his phone to get him to consume something between films. Most of it's familiar in a comfortable way- anything space oriented or set during world war 2? Has him slipping out for another round at the snack table or a bit of fresh air.

Not something he really needs to see again. ]

🜞 Debugging

-imited memory, Boss.

I know, I'm working on it- [ Is it recommended to be poking at microprocessors while a device is still on and powered? No. Does Tony care? Also no. These phones are-

Well they're fine. They're serviceable. But they're also strangling his baby girl and that? That won't stand. ] Should've said something earlier, Fri.

[ Her answer's a garbled burst of broguish static and Tony sighs, fingers rattling on the bulge wrapped by his coat next to him on the table. She's fine as long as the hidden helmet's got it's independent power source running but- she needs space. Two other phones cannibalized in front of him and he really, really just needs to pitch a Starkphone here, but having a working prototype would help said pitch and give FRIDAY her space, so. Sitting at a random table (anywhere, honestly, this happens more than once as she stretches and reaches the new limitations of what he's managed) talking to his girl, and performing a little microsurgery on the fly.

No biggie. ]

🜞 Wild Card

[ He can be found at MetaMalt, Where's Siri?, and The Garage trying to condense his achievements into something marketable, or walking about and getting a feel for the city. ]

Edited 2018-02-06 08:37 (UTC)

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▸ QUESTIONS.

▸ BLIND DATES.