witchesreign | date auction! forward dated to Wednesday lunch

date auction! forward dated to Wednesday lunch

[The quad's all set up for the date auction! A handsome-looking blonde guy - one of the native cadets on the GFC - is center stage with the list and a mic, auctionees (and Headmaster Cid, ~~sipping on a drink~~ supervising) ready behind him. (Alas, Pinkie is out campaigning or something, and Mikuru is doing some last minute work elsewhere and doesn't like the stage anyway.)

[He flashes a smile.] Gooooood afternoon, ladies and gentlemen and everyone else! I'm Russell Drake from the Garden Festival Committee, and I'd like to welcome you all to the GFC's second charity date auction! Once again all proceeds will be going towards the Centra orphanage, so please be generous with your bids! Bids start at 1 gil and we do not take rain checks or IOUs!

We have a fantastic bunch of volunteers for your dating pleasure today, so without further ado, let's get started!

Each person has their own thread. Please put your bids in the subject lines so people can see them! Threads collapse after fifty comments, so using the subject lines will make the bids easier to see.
Bids close and winners will be posted on Friday before the carnival post goes up. IC-ly, the winners will be announced Wednesday afternoon.
If you missed signups, PM wrmods and we'll squeeze them in as an IC "saw the auction on the day, hopped onstage and harassed the GFC to auction them off" auction. Just characters who would willingly sign up at this point, please!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Yep. That statement hangs in the air for a minute, as Rainbow Dash considers things -- mainly, how annoyed she'd been with Fluttershy when she refused to come watch the dragon migration.]

...If you come up with something, that you think I'd enjoy, I'd still do it.

You wouldn't have to. Fair's fair. [He'd just have to defer that revenge, that's all!]

Well, sure I wouldn't have to, but I still would. Hey, you'd come see a dragon migration if I asked, wouldn't you?

[He scratches the back of his head.] That a hypothetical question? [Although his tone of voice doesn't make it sound like the answer would be no...]

Yeah, but only because I don't know if any dragons on this world migrate.

[Which is probably the first time that precise sentence has been uttered in the history of the cosmos.]

So it doesn't matter what I say, in other words. [A very slight grin.] Well, it'd depend, anyway.

Depend on what? [She hopes she's not setting herself up for something here...]

What do you think? On whether there's any more magic involved.

[Rainbow snorts, rolling her eyes.]

For the record, watching a dragon migration just requires some good binoculars and a place on the ground where they can't see you!

[She didn't have to put it like that...] Hey, can you blame me for checking?

...Yeah, actually, I can a little.

[Something in the way he says that seems to have a struck a nerve, to judge by the way she looks at him.]

[He's caught a little off guard by that - enough to make him dial down the flippancy before he responds, but not enough to stop him getting defensive.]

Well, okay... but is there any reason to blame me?

Yeah.

[She zips up and around to face him in midair, eye to eye at the proper level.]

Ed, honestly, you're a great guy, but I'm getting sick of this whole 'boo magic' thing and everything that comes with it. Look, I get it. You don't like being here. This isn't your world, it's strange and weird, you're missing your brother, you really want to get home. That's fine, no one's blaming you for that, but stop taking it out on me and my friends! Because I'm really getting tired of it. This world isn't any less weird for us. It's not home, I'd never even SEEN a human before I came here, but if I made a comment about how it doesn't make sense that you can stand on just two legs every time you did it, you'd be pretty fed up with me.

There are people out there on this world who shot at me just because I'm a pegasus pony. They'd do the same to Twilight, or Princess Luna. I'd really like it if one of my friends could accept me and my friends for who we are.

[The speech completely loses all of its vehemence as she gets through it, till by the end she has a hoof behind her head and is looking away awkwardly. She really... hadn't meant to go off like that, it'd just been building for a while, and for a moment she'd been thinking of Gilda, and...]

...sorry. I think I was yelling at an old friend more than I was yelling at you there.

[...Whoa. How long had she been bottling that up?

Despite all appearances, though, he's not completely insensitive. At a few points he looks like he wants to cut in, but he doesn't until she's already trailed off. And actually, not even then - for several long seconds, he just stares at her. His expression might not be one that she's seen much of, but it isn't a stranger to him - a thin veneer of surprise covering up the guilt.

Then he looks down at his own feet.]

No, don't be sorry. [Another awkward pause. He never has any idea what to say when it comes to stuff like this.] I'd tell you I didn't mean it like that, but... that doesn't really count for anything, does it?

[Well, that long pause just makes things more and more awkward, doesn't it? Because she did not intend to just go off like that...it just sort of happened. Like it usually does...]

No, I know you weren't being mean about it, but...

[She can't say it hurt, because frankly that would require admitting to being vulnerable like that, which she isn't willing to do (to him). Still, it's more obvious than she'd like, isn't it?]

[Well, it's pretty obvious now...]

Well, sure. I can stop saying it. Didn't realise it got to you so badly. [That's pretty close to an apology, if you squint.] But... I can't promise I'll stop thinking it.

[Dammit, she's making him do it, too. Why'd she have to mention his brother?]

...There's nothing special about the humans on this world, you know. They're wrong, but they're not demons. We're all the same. Sooner or later, we're just scared of what we don't understand. [He still isn't looking at her, but he almost smiles.] If it's acceptance you're hoping for, well, you could probably pick a better species to ask.

Whoa, it's not -- It's not me you're getting to, I don't care what you think about me. It bothers me that you'd think about my friends that way.

[This is probably the least-competent lie Rainbow Dash has ever told in her entire life. The only way it could be worse if she was telling it to someone who wouldn't understand her line of thinking in telling it.]

And I really don't care about "humans" in general. Most of you are all right inside, once you DO get a handle on things. But...

[She drops out of the air and takes a few steps away, then turns to stand in profile -- wings spread, rainbow mane and tail and cutie mark all on display, as she looks at him.]

This is who I am. I don't care about other people, but, can you accept it?

[~~Rainbow you just said it wasn't you it bothered could you stick to your shameful lie for like ten seconds~~]

I'm not asking you to... not notice or even not think some of the things I do are weird or crazy. I'm a pony, you're a human, we're different, it'd be just dumb to pretend otherwise. Just... does it have to matter? Because it doesn't to me.

Dash...

[A few different ways of brushing her off immediately spring to mind: asking why she'd want his opinion if she really didn't care, pointing out that she's the only one claiming that any of this matters, some other snarky comment on humans in general...

He looks at her.]

Honestly? I don't know yet. But that's my problem, not yours. You don't have to worry about it.

Not MY problem?! I --

[She draws herself up, prepared to make a big deal out of this, but clamps down on her anger. Ed is a big idiot who doesn't understand at all, but yelling at him isn't going to help things. Well, it might make her feel better.]

Just -- close your eyes, okay? For one minute.

[He complies, then immediately wonders if that was a good idea. She... probably wouldn't kick him in the face without a bit more warning, right?]

Why? What're you gonna do?

[No. She doesn't even want to kick him in the face. Now that she thinks about it, she's honestly a little sad for him -- she has earth ponies and unicorns as her best friends, she's used to gryphons and dragons and doesn't think twice about them. Humans were a small step for her.]

I just wanna know...

What do I sound like to you? Different somehow? Because I know you're human, but if my eyes were closed, I wouldn't be able to tell just from your voice.

[Eh, he doesn't need his eyes shut to answer that.] No, there's no difference. And the way you act, the stuff you talk about - there's not a lot of difference there, either.

[The unspoken next word crystallises in the air.]

[And she waits for it. She knows it's coming.]

[It isn't, apparently. Maybe he lost his nerve. He just seems to deflate a little.]

Sorry. I know I shouldn't take it out on you. Like I said, it's not your problem.

[She blinks, because she can't imagine him breaking down for anything less than -- oh no. She sinks a little (literally) because she's just been metaphorically punched in the gut, as thinking (long after she acted) leads her to a conclusion that makes her feel like an absolute heel.]

...does it bother you so much because your brother's hasn't got a human body either?

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