strange night out!

Meridian was not one to frequent dates, but it was Matentines. Most buns of any status were looking for partners to spend the warming nights with, and Meridian decided that he should likely not be the exception. So he signed up for the Church of Sulfur matchmaking activity, adorned himself with the finest of outfits-he-wore-every-day, and arrived half an hour before the date was set to start. The earliest striker gets the first meal, as everyone knows.

He stands at the table, behind the chair, as he waits for his date to arrive. He dare not attempt to envision whatever dark and scorned beauty the Church has surely picked out as his perfect match; putting a name to something robs it of its mysterious beauty. The waiter stares over at him not sitting down, but Meridian hardly realizes. He’s preparing to meet a possible soulmate.

Shinchu was surely not in the position of looking for a soulmate by any means. In fact, she'd been goaded into doing this alongside those she called friends. But honestly, this whole thing was kind of moot.

By no way was she not a vision of grace and beauty, like a perfect doll this one. Who knows, maybe she will realize that love is in the air this Matentines and get whatever stick is shoved up her ass out for a bit.

All of that aside, he would soon enough see the other pride succubun stroll her way in and scan the area behind her veiled gaze. But she doesn't smile, doesn't wave, and quickly assumes that the weirdo standing by the table is her date. And approaches wordlessly, standing expectantly.

Meridian stands on guard. He is but a noble warrior standing vigil, and stand vigil he shall. He looks out across the restaurant, making intense eye contact with everyone he sees that could possibly be his date. As one brave soul makes the decision to approach, Meridian goes into a ridiculously deep bow. The scrolls and runes adorning his outfit scrape along the floor, and then wildly spread out in a flurry as he stands back up.

“Halt! You come upon the great Meridian, first and last of his name!” He poses dramatically, holding a hand out. He is absolutely being too loud for this restaurant. “Do you dare continue forward unaided by a patron, or do you come here upon the wing of the great Church in the name of the season of affection?” 

"...what?"

Shinchu makes the boldened decision to simply pull the chair nearest to her and take a spot right in front of this incredulous bun. At least she wasn't scared, an eerily calm demeanor despite the strange situation she's stumbled upon.

Her attention flicks to the card that held his name and flicks it onto his side of the table for him to see.

"Shinchu. Call me Shin and I'll remove yours, call me Chu and I'll chew your limbs off." While it may seem like a threat...it's a joke? Her voice is monotonous, it's hard to tell sometimes.

"You should sit down."

Meridian laughs, loud and uproariously. “Excellent! It is wonderful to meet you, Shinchu, and I will heed your warning well. No desecration of true names will happen on this day.”

He scoots the chair out with a heel, and sits down as he offers his hand across the table to shake. “It truly is an honor to be here this day,” It seems that the deadpan response is doing nothing to curb his enthusiasm. If anything, the lack of energy is causing him to try and pour more into… whatever it is he thinks he’s doing. “What brings you on this foray into darkness, on this delving into mystery? What are you hoping to achieve with your quest into the inky blackness?”

Shinchu was used to the weird and extroverted from her "friendship" with Dixie, but this? This is a whole other level of strange enthusiasm that she'd never been forced to meet with.

"Uh," it seems Miriam may have actually dumbfounded her for a just a moment. It's hard to tell, honestly. "My friend talked me into trying this out."

She meets his hand with her own. Her grip is surprisingly strong - not painfully so mind you - for one of her dainty looks. Strange succubuns abound. I'm sure the pair are turning some heads for all the wrong reasons.

"I can see why though. I think your energy is suited towards her. But you're strange and particularly interesting if nothing else. There's nothing wrong with having new points of contact in the Burrowgatory I suppose."

Meridian shakes her hand eagerly, applying just a little less strength than Shichu does. He’s not one that puts much effort into maintaining peak physical strength, so it doesn’t take much for him to be outmatched in the handshake department.

“Excellent! Gaining insight and guidance from those closest to us is how we grow stronger; one bun cannot make themselves into an army from isolation!” He says excitedly, sitting up straight in his seat. His face settles into a neutral look, but his mannerisms are far too excited to be hidden. 

“Though I am thankful for the compliment paid to me in relation of a good friend, it is all the more complimentary to hear that I have started off this meeting of the minds with enough vigor to be labeled ‘interesting’ by you,” He says, fully genuine. “I am here tonight to divine whether we might be fitting companions, for however much time the fates above and below us will allow. Tell me, Shinchu, the adventurous yet stoic, what flights of fancy do you find yourself indulging in on a long, empty night with company only in yourself?”

The one book about dates he had read mentioned asking about hobbies, and Meridian believed that to be a very good idea. He loved hearing about what drives other people, especially the sort of things they cared deeply about.

Ah yes, the small talk. Although it is hardly small with the boisterous man that sat before her. Admittedly, interesting was both a compliment and an insult wrapped up in one.

Glad he took it as the former.

As he began talking, she picked up the knife which was surely sitting on the table setup. With the blade against the table, she used one finger to simply fidget, drawing circles in the air with the handle. The DeviantArt edge lord inside of her emerges.

"At night?" She asks, as if clarifying the over-worded question. "Not much. I tend to stay in. My job is pretty demanding, and I don't have much energy to do otherwise."

This is a red hot lie. Or half of one, at least. She worked a butchery, which was a front for a mafia that she works for as a hitman. However, that's hardly date appropriate.

"And you? Like to lengthen your vocabulary on your free time?"

He nods as she speaks, listening intently. Of course, focusing all his energy on her would leave him vulnerable from possible attacks from various dark assailants aiming to disrupt his ascension to his destined throne. But, at least 95% of his focus was on her words.

“Ah, a job that saps away at the ability to develop those alternate skills and trades… I hope then, for your sake, you find deep spiritual fulfillment in your occupation in order to richen your life! What, pray tell, do you work as?”

He leans forward, not taking the question as the slight-insult as it seemed it was intended to be. “Ah! My hobbies, when I am not also toiling for the sake of sustenance and home, involve various studies of the dark and powerful arts! There’s little literature on it, so pouring over the tomes of those most reputable sorcerers and magicians of Burrowtarory is a favored hobby of mine!”

Of course, being as magic of that kind is not real, he’s mostly just admitted his fondness for fiction. It doesn’t seem it’s fiction to him, though.

Shinchu actually raised a brow in interest as he poured his soul out continuously towards his hobby. Magic...again, interesting. In a not mean way, but genuinely curious. He face absolutely wouldn't show it though, keeping the same resting bitch face that she carried through the date thus far.

"Magic. Not like, card tricks you picked up at the casino?" She leans back in her chair, giving him and quick once over. "Interesting..."

Maybe one day she'll have more to say. It's honestly a bit comedic the way this has been going so far.  But it seems she's willing to open up a bit at his own divulgence.

"I work at a butcher's downtown," she lets the knife fall from her weak hold and clatter to the table. "Not that interesting I guess. Just cutting things to pieces daily and dealing with the stream of people."

"Do you work?" At least she's conversing. "Or are you busy with your studies?"

Meridian shakes his head as she says card tricks, his singular eye narrowing. “No, I do not engage in those paltry tricks of coordination and dexterity! My magicks go deeper, the sort of magicks that will one day result in all that is and all that will be falling under my great and powerful domain!”

He holds a hand over where the eyepatch covers his eye, for truly no reason. “A most valuable job, acquiring what must be acquired to sustain the world in which we live… even with that, I can see a link between you and I.”

He moves his hand down over his heart dramatically. “My current factory of toil is one of providing food to the masses, sustaining this evergrowing grotto… For now, it goes by the moniker ‘Taco Hell’.”

"Taco...Hell."

Honestly she's got minor issues keeping up with his absurdist tone and turn of phrase. But she's putting in the effort to try and make sure she was doing her due diligence in digesting the poetry that was coming out of his mouth.

Ah, he's a Taco Hell worker.

"I can't say that I've had before." She admitted calmly, doing her best to hopefully keep herself in conversation. He was so eccentric, hopefully he wouldn't bore of her. "You work in the kitchen or something?

“Yes, it is a dining establishment of the highest rigor! I do not eat the food made there, but I am assured of it’s quality and high level of customer satisfaction!” Meridian says proudly. He thinks this date is going very well, very well indeed. So much excellent small talk! 

“And no, I man the stations facing the general populace,” Meridian explains. “They did not like having me in the back for some reason, I believe my aura corrupts even the most pure of ingredients if I am not constantly maintaining it’s power….. It’s a curse I must live with, unfortunately. You should go at some point! Perhaps you could create some kind of contract between the world of butchery and the world of serving…”

"That's...a choice."

Girl you gotta be stopped, he's so genuine and sweet. Even if he is a little weird at least it's a genuine weirdness.

"Truthfully, we may already provide for your...Taco Hell store." She shrugs nonchalantly, staying quite relaxed and continuing her attempt to keep the conversation going. "We do shipments to local businesses weekly, so I wouldn't be surprised if we made deliveries to your back door."

A second's pause passes.

"I'll check the schedule next time I'm in. And maybe get something the next time I'm nearby."

“Ah! A secret supplier, running behind the very scenes of Burrowgatory…” Meridian says in wonderment. Despite it being… a fairly regular thing, to provide ingredients to a restaurant, he still seems genuinely impressed by Shinchu saying this. “You must have connections… deep within the world of butchery to draw on such infernal dealings and deliver them unexpected and unforeseen by the general public…”

He clenches his hand and stares at it, as if seriously and deeply considering the process of dropping food off at a Taco Hell backdoor. After a few moments of complete and utter silence, he looks back up. “If I still alight upon the doorstep of that establishment when you arrive, I will do my all to ensure you receive nothing but the best service…. Though I cannot guarantee my aura will allow me to stay in one location for too long before it alerts my enemies to my presence….”

A sigh left her nose as he continued to go on and on about his job in his own unique way. Though she's quite kindly doing so, it still makes her head just spin a little bit. It's not crazy for her to be silent anyways, it's just how she was on a day-to-day. But I suppose she still feels sadly about that.

"Do you tend to have a lot of enemies coming into your Taco Hell?" Truthfully, she's never been. As someone who has a friend who worked extensively at it's counterpart...probably. There's probably enemies at Taco Hell. "I promise, I would likely be alright. Please don't worry about me."

“Ah, I do not fear that my enemies would raise any quarrel with you! I am sure you could hold your own, as you work with the butcher’s weapons! No, my enemies do not strike in the dayglow or dark of night so overtly…” Meridian says, looking off into the middle distance again.

“If I stay at an occupation for too long, my enemies begin to walk in the shadows… whispering rumors and rousing the crowds against me…” Meridian tells this tale with gusto, as if he’s reading a book aloud. “They spill lies from their wretched tongues, and eventually my comrades in arms have no choice but to set me on a new journey… I have made my home at the Taco Hell for only a fortnight so far, but I can only hope it lasts long enough…”

Meridian continues to stare out into nothingness, like he’s considering the horrible lies the supposed enemies must have spilled. Though… it may seem a little bit like just another way to say he keeps getting fired. 

"So you've gone between a number of jobs it sounds like." She continues smoothly. "Because of your enemies coming from the dark?"

It's honestly really hard to tell if it's insulting. And even if it felt like it might be, it's not like he was understanding that either. Which is fine by her, she doesn't want to hurt his feelings.

Meridian, of course, has the possible insult fly directly over his head.

“Yes!” he says, believing himself to be fully truthful. “I have gone between many battlegrounds to make my way in the world… But there is always new ground to tread. Each new place is just a step on my journey.”

"Have you ever considered finding a job that would...be more suited to your magical inclination?" She asked, again, somewhere between genuine and jokingly. But she can admit this is more genuinely asked. "I mean...I don't know if food service and magic master go hand in hand, do they?"

She leans forward, staring the bun in front of her down. Not angrily or anything, just a nice blank stare.

"There are some interesting shops that sell crystals and incense that have beliefs in otherworldly things. I'm sure they may end up more understanding of your...spiritual afflictions."

Meridian nods, considering her proposal. “That is a very intelligent idea, Shinchu, fitting of the one it came from,” he says. “However, I have tread down that path before, and it unfortunately was not one that came with all the riches necessary to survive in this city…”

He wistfully holds a hand over his eyepatch. “It was delightful, working for those few short days alongside others of similar mind and magicks… However, it was not to be… Rent is rather expensive nowadays…”

He sighs, then casts his hand suddenly outward like he’s dispelling something. “Never you mind, though! I am quite satisfied in my rotating occupation, it is as if fate itself is handing me challenges to build me up to my ultimate form! However, we have talked much of my path, and little of yours. How goes your hours in the butcher’s shop? Do you have enemies to be wary of?”

"I'm sorry to hear."

She leans her cheek against her palm and continued to just blankly stare at him. Surely, every server in the building is trying to draw straws to determine who wants to interrupt this cringeworthy scene between the two.

"...I work at a butchery." Pause. "Of course I have enemies."

The date continues to get ever weirder between them, and yet it feels like things were comfortably normal at the same time. Weird how that works.

"The amount of customers that come in and ask dumb questions or try to 'joke' about their genitalia and the meat makes me want to detach their heads from their neck."

He nods gravely. “It is hard to suffer fools,” he says, without a hint of irony. “I believe that sort of transgression on your own territory should come with consequences of your determination. The enemies that befoul your workplace are most foolish indeed.”

Meridian sighs, looking out into nowhere. “Such vulgar beasts roam this cavern. I find thinking at times it would be for the best if they roamed no more, I am in agreement with you.”

"Well, I'm glad we're able to find something to agree on." She shrugs, finally setting her back against the chair again, crossing her arms across her chest and finally keeping her eyes peeled for a waiter. "At the same time...the service here kind of stinks, don't you think?"

Slowly she's pulling it back to reality.

"How long have we been talking for at this point? And they haven't even offered a menu to us."

Meridian looks around, as if suddenly realizing they had been in a restaurant this entire time. “Ah! You are right indeed. The staff here… Hmm.” He furrows his brow, leaning in conspiratorly. “Do you think… that perhaps the staff here have someone speaking in their ear? Perhaps some of our enemies are causing some sort of kerfuffle here."

He shoots a suspicious look at the nearest waiter, who is clearly ignoring them. “Would the food here even be safe to eat, if prepared by a foe?” 

Shinchu waits another moment or so, letting Meridian continue his soliloquy uninterrupted before noticing the staff had been staring at them...how rude! They were paying customers and a pair from the Church no less.

Abruptly, she pushes her chair out, giving Meridian a serious expression.

"I fear you may have been compromised. Fortunately, I know a place up the road that will ensure you stay...protected." She offers a hand to him. "Would you like to continue this date there?"

Meridian stands as well, pushing the chair in sharply. “Keen eye, Shinchu. I had not noticed the signs of my enemies approaching, and it seems they’ve surrounded us now.”

He scans the room, one eye narrowed. “Yes, if you believe you have a secured location, I would love to continue our conversation. I believe we have much yet to talk about, but it would be for the best if we were assured of privacy and protection.”

He takes her hand, and follows after, enjoying his night out regardless of ‘enemies’.