genessia | Singles Night @ Bright Sky Diner

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Singles Night @ Bright Sky Diner

It had started as a joke, but gradually more people were showing interest in the idea, and so Singles Night became a thing. It would be fun, the managers said, and it would hopefully gain some revenue. The event would have been advertised around the city, so when the night came, the staff there were waiting for a good turn out. They'd certainly gone to some effort.

MAIN AREA

The main part of the diner had been changed into an area made of larger tables to encourage mingling. Here there were buffet tables set up, and the lighting was warm and friendly. Light jazz music played very softly in the background to keep the atmosphere buzzing and happy. Maybe people would meet the love of their life here, or maybe they'd just meet a new friend.

BOOTHS

The booth along the walls of the restaurant remained as they were, but the lighting above the tables was muted for a more intimate feel. These areas of the restaurant would be quieter and there was no need for anyone to be nearby unless they were seeking a little more peace. These tables are ideal for people who have found someone they'd like to get to know a little better. It's relaxed, but pretty romantic, with candles on the tables too. These booths include table service, with quiet but friendly wait staff.

OUTSIDE AREA

Now this is the special place to be. The outside area of the diner has been transformed into a romantic and cosy place. Fairy lights decorate the fencing, and there are warm blankets on the benches too. This is a perfect place for those who want to cuddle up. After all, what better way to warm up than to sit side by side and admire the stars with the charming stranger you've just met?

[This is a mingle post! Feel free to add your characters anywhere you wish. Good luck on finding the one, making new friends, or trolling the singles. Have fun!~]

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Trahearne eventually made his way outside, a cup of soda in one hand. He could use the fresh air and another vantage point to try to spot Tannusen in the crowd. Knowing his luck, the fae had already left! A few of these people he'd seen before, on the network at least, but, well, they were all busy and small talk was not his strong point.

First he looked up at the sky, examining the stars, again, to see if there were any patterns he might recognize. No, there never was. He looked around next, gaze skating over those already engaged in conversation, and stopped on Koumyou. Even in this strange world, the monk stood out, in those bright white robes and scroll on his shoulder. A magic user, Trahearne assumed.

"Is that allowed?" he asked as he drew near, pointing to the pipe.

No, but the moonlight was just a little brighter tonight than when Trahearne had gone inside, wasn't it?

"I have no idea!" Koumyou cheerfully took another drag, his next words coming with smoke aimed up into the sky, "no one's come to ask me to stop. Or is that what you're doing?"

It was brighter, Trahearne didn't know what to think of that. It did make the night all the more beautiful though, he could appreciate that. He prefered the night.

"Not at all." Trahearne smiled, awkward. "I just wanted to say something and didn't know what to say."

Away from the lights indoors, he was starting to glow. Yellow light shone through the plastic of his cup.

"Oh-ho, is that how it is?" Koumyou teased, "did you come over here to flirt? I'm so flattered!"

"Wha- no no!" Trahearne ducked his head and, for a moment, looked like he might turn right around and flee. He stopped himself and took a sip of his soda instead. Dragons were a feasible target, social interactions were not.

"Not that I mean to be rude. I just wanted to talk, that's all, I'm not really here for this single's night event. Ah, I'm very sorry." The faint glowing on his face from the dim lighting had brightened considerably. Sylvari blushing.

Koumyou's laugh was gentle and kind, at least. "Oh, so that's what this party is for! How fun. I don't mind just talking, though."

"Ah. Good." Trahearne punctuated his words with an awkward cough. He'd fallen for the teasing but Koumyou seemed to be nice enough. So far.

"May I ask your name? I am Trahearne." No titles attached to his name. There were several he could share, but no point to do so.

"Koumyou Sanzo," the priest took another drag of his pipe and blew smoke rings at the stars. "The whole thing, I'm afraid. It's the rules."

"I have no objection to that, Koumyou Sanzo," Trahearne replied, though he looked confused, curious. "The rules of what? Set by whom?"

"I'm a high Buddhist priest," Koumyou smiled around his pipe and sucked down the last of the remaining tobacco. All that was left now was used up ash. He blew out the last of the smoke away from Trahearne's breathing air, and then turned the pipe over with an elegant flick-flick to shake the hot ashes free.

"As high as they get, in fact. There are a maximum of five of my rank alive at any given time. Usually less than that."

"I'm not sure what 'Buddhist' refers to, but 'priest' I understand. I take it that means you name is not just a name? Most priests I've known have served a particular god and this doesn't affect their name." Trahearne's yellow eyes shone, both because of the glowing and his curiosity.

He fidgeted in place, turning his cup in a circle in his hands. It was hard to ask those from various worlds about said worlds without being rude. When the information was just offered like this, he couldn't resist.

"Sanzo is my rank, Koumyou is my holy name, given to me when I became a Sanzo. Koumyou means... ah, light, brightness, openhearted... or even lucid brightness. Some people," he added a little conspiratorially, "think that I'm the moon."

Which he kind of was.

"In some kind of metaphorical sense?" Trahearne looked up at the moon overhead, it was so bright tonight, and back down at Koumyou. There were too many myths and stories about the moon from many different worlds for him to piece together why Koumyou would be compared to it. His robes were bright enough but white robes were hardly unique.

"My name means 'strength of iron', it's not quite so fitting, though it is not a name of any particular high standing like your own." Just a name belonging to someone with high ranking himself.

"Ooh, 'strength of iron', that's pretty good," Koumyou tucked his emptied pipe back into his sleeve and took a sip of his cider. "So, do you live up to it?"

"That's-" Trahearne paused and frowned. He had a lot of things to live up to and, technically, he had, but his name was not one he'd ever considered as part of that list.

"That's hard to say," he finished, trailing off awkwardly.

"How so?"

"I don't know the intent behind the name given to me. I would not be the one to ask." Trahearne looked away, trying to hide the dull look in his eyes. Touching that subject came too close to brushing against years of confusion and bitterness he forever shoved away.

"Ohhhh," Koumyou took another sip of his apple cider, "and now you remind me of my son, suddenly."

"How so?" It was his turn to ask that question. Being compared to someone's child was a first, he was more used to being compared to the plants in their yard.

"He's never known if he measures up to his name, either, or rather I suppose he feels the weight and the pressure of it quite keenly. I gave him 'Genjyo' as his holy name, or homyo. It means, essentially, 'to actualize'. Or, more crudely, 'get shit done'."

Trahearne laughed, surprised by Koumyou's bluntness. The priest had been bordering on mysterious and elegant, and then, that. Still elegant, perhaps more approachable.

"I can understand where he comes from, in that regard. Less so for my name than tasks I was assigned." Funny thing, to admit to a Sanzo priest. "I wish him luck with that struggle."

Even little Kouryuu had been quite the snarky little shit. He'd gotten that from somewhere!

"Well, as a Sanzo priest, he certainly has his tasks," Koumyou sighed, knowing he'd placed that gigantic burden squarely on some very small shoulders. If only they'd had more time--!

"I take it these tasks are more than education and a dedication to a deity?" Why would there only be five of them if there wasn't a lot more to it? Trahearne could think of many reasons why that would be, at least in the context he was used to, yet there was probably much more to it than he could imagine.

He offered a sympathetic look at the sigh, this line of conversation had gone into uncomfortable areas for the both of them.

"A Sanzo is the priest tasked with guarding one of the five sutras. I guarded two. My son... I gave him one just before my death, but as my successor, he also is burdened with the one that was on me when I fell. That one... this one, in fact," Koumyou pinched the corner of the sutra draped around his shoulders, "was stolen away by my killers. These are very serious artifacts; it's said that the five combined created all of existence and nothingness, life and death, light and dark... he was thirteen when I died. I hadn't even had the time to give him the basic Sanzo training yet, and all of that came crashing down onto him with his homyo."

Koumyou bowed his head a little, letting his long bangs shield his face. His eyes burned, a little.

"I'm sorry," Trahearne said softly, his voice full of regret. The gravity of the task, that he could relate to and understand, to an extent. But... He had forgotten, for a while, that there were some that came here past their deaths, not just at the brink of it. And that time lines between various people of the same world could differ. That could be difficult to handle, he assumed.

"I didn't want to bring up something so painful. Is there something else we could speak of that would not be distressing?" Or he could just leave. That might do more harm than good.

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