perfectmatch | week one | match ceremony

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week one | match ceremony

Today's Match Ceremony starts the moment the sun goes down. They will be led to a courtyard on the estate, filled to the brim with lanterns of all kinds and plush couches and chairs for them to sit on. The place is lit bright by the lanterns and the vibe is very cozy. There will be a few camera crews lingering around, ready to catch sight of the contestants as they settle in and get comfortable. There is also food and beverages, some alcohol, some non-alcoholic, for everyone to partake in.

In the center of the courtyard is a stage, hanging above it are eight lanterns, none of which are lit up. Wei Wuxian stands in the middle, dressed to impress for tonight's festivities. In one hand, he has his flute, in another, a cup of huangjiu. He lifts it merrily, giving a laugh before knocking back the alcohol and tossing the cup away. (A staff member nearby catches it, thank god.)

"Welcome, everyone! To your first match ceremony! I am your humble host and we're here to see if chemistry can happen, even under duress~!"

A staff member nearby grimaces at that. It might be the same staff member who caught the cup. It's fine, the producers won't punish him. Probably.

But characters will notice that there is a podium next to the stage for them to lock in their answers.

"For those who are new to this, let's talk about how this works. First, I will call up one of the members of Team Suibian and they will go to the podium over here, make a choice of who they think their match is, and together you will press your hands to the podium to lock it in."

He gives a hum, twirling the flute in his hand a few times before grasping it by the end and using it to point at the contestants.

"As a result of your choices, the lanterns above me will light up with however many perfect matches you've chosen. It is your job to figure out which of the choices made tonight are indeed perfect matches. If you aren't able to get any of them right, you will get a black out. Which means, someone will lose their wish. Don't do that!"

He'll let his warning hang for a moment before smiling, tapping his shoulder lazily with the flute and then grinning broadly.

"With that, let's get started."

——

Each character of Team Suibian will be called in random order, under the selections top level. Feel free to react there!

After the matches, the results top level will reveal how many are right!

Otherwise, feel free to use this log for any reactions, catherding, whatever you want for the match ceremony.

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[Terrified to find out how bad Ringo's musical taste is when she whips out the chiptunes.]

Right, we should finish with our review first. [She might have gotten a little excited to study that piece.] Better not interrupt them while they're on a roll, either.

[Maybe the talent show will be a good setup for the following week, after all. They've all be together for such a short time, but it's strange, realizing just how quickly things can change.

Poutily:] If only we could write! I'd have dozens of notes to deliver.

[help.

But anyway, first thing's first:]

Notes? What sort of notes?

[She's extremely curious what sorts of notes Furina might mean. But she's coming back around to the music piece, because Ringo's excited to share it, too.]

Well, when I direct, I always take note of feedback during rehearsal. Things like observations about the actors' interactions or stage directions I'd like to change...

[As Ringo already observed earlier in the week, she's a hard worker, and as a director, she can be incredibly assertive and firm.]

This week's chosen pair was proof enough that a good show isn't all about what makes a good show, but if I could jot down my observations, I could share them when we meet like this.

[And she would be terrifying, probably.]

[..... Huh.]

Woooow, I think I'd like to see that.

[Sincerely. She wants to see director Furina at full power. That sounds awesome.]

Shame about the notes, but I guess you could try to do what you can based off of memory? There are a lot of us that don't know anything about being in front of a camera, so I'm sure it'd be useful.

[A beat.]

Oh, yeah! I was gonna ask. Do you want to go check out that music after this meeting wraps? Now that I've figured it out, I have to admit I'm eager to hear your opinion.

Haha, you still might, the next time we need a little bit of guidance to get this show back on track! I'm confident enough to rest with our victory for now.

[They're off to such a good start that Furina does feel like she can sit back for a night or two; it's stressful, but needed.

After a quick glance around at the group, there still seems to be a few things up for discussion before they adjourn for the night - she nods.]

Sure, once this winds down, let's find a pot.

[True, they are off to a good start--both in terms of showmanship, and of probability. Three is a comfortable number without them getting too overconfident.

Hm...

For now, satisfied with that confirmation, Ringo just dives back into the discussion.

But I will timeskip us for the sake of Music Shenanigans. And so, much later after the discussion has fizzled out for the night, Ringo returns to Furina's side, of course.]

Well! That was productive. Seems people are feeling good about their matches overall this time.

It's hard not to feel good after such an excellent debut.

[They might have failed to get what they wanted from the Truth Booth, but even without reducing the number of matches they needed to find, the numbers are good. The only problem is that...]

If people feel strongly about their matches, it might be hard to narrow down our choices next week, too. [It's going to lead to at least one difficult discussion, she's sure.] But we'll have time to refine what we're looking for then! [Ahem.] Let's talk about something more fun!

[Right. They've got a lot of work to do, but it's fine! That's next week's problem. This week's problem has been handled.

Which means: something more fun!]

Like music, yeah?

Let's go to the library! I've got the song all picked out.

Let's not dawdle, then. Allons-y!

[Even with their bookworms, Furina anticipates the library will empty - or mostly so - at this time of night. Since the ceremony took place after the sun went down and the discussion lasted quite some time, it's well into night by now, but Furina, despite a little yawn and stretch on the walk over, still seems invigorated.]

What factors did you consider when choosing your song?

[Ringo, too, seems bright-eyed and bushy-tailed still--though she most certainly will pay for it when she crashes into bed and sleeps in late the next morning.

It's fine. That's later Ringo's problem.

Current Ringo... well. She pauses at the question, blinking, and then--a surprising display of what almost seems to be... bashfulness.]

... So. I guess I'll preface this by saying that since I'm an AI and all, I don't exactly have... you know, creativity. That's humanity's domain. Always has been. Being creative and artistic...

[It requires a soul, something to say, passion to say it. Not that Ringo doesn't think she's got at least two of the three, but you know.]

Not that it's an excuse! Judge my pick as harshly as you would any other from anyone. But... because of that, I might've gone about it kind of weirdly.

[Seeing shyness from Ringo is unexpected, and Furina draws in a little noise witnessing something so surprising. They haven't known each other very long, but Furina's always seen her move forward so confidently. If she hadn't been upfront about it, she could never have guessed that Ringo had felt hesitation about any part of her identity.

It's impossible to imagine anyone, especially someone like Ringo, having no creativity - not from a lack of interest or a dislike of it, but simply from not having it.]

What do you mean by "kind of weirdly?" There are plenty of objective ways to judge art, like music. Key, rhythm, arrangement, melody... an accomplished composer will have mastery of all of these things. But the most technically perfect piece won't mean anything if it doesn't touch the heart. That's how you know you've found a winner.

[The faintest of winces. Right. Furina has immediately nailed the problem in "have the AI pick a piece of music". She can pick the most technically perfect piece of music in the library, but it means nothing if there isn't heart and meaning to go alongside it.]

Yeah. That's exactly it.

[They step into the library, and Ringo clears her throat and finally explains:]

So I grabbed a bunch of arias that I thought sounded nice. And I brought them to Wei Wuxian and asked him to explain the feelings they all made him feel. Nobody better to explain human feelings than a human, right?

I--

[--felt, in the midst of listening to them over and over again, late at night, that perhaps she could understand the feelings behind them too when Wei Wuxian explained them, but maybe it was just wishful thinking...?]

--Well, anyway! That's how I picked. I chose off of which description of the feelings he felt I liked the most.

[Oh, the flinch--

Furina had spoken so grandly about the emotional importance of art to be reassuring, not to make Ringo feel worse about her shortcomings. She lifts her arm, but ends up not quite reaching out because...

It also still doesn't make sense to her. Ringo...feels things, doesn't she? When it comes to what she wants and what she likes, she never has any problem expressing that. Furina isn't impossible to fool, but she certainly thinks she knows a thing or two about putting on a mask in front of others.

Furina is too conflicted in her own feelings--curious, confused, apologetic, a little disappointed, even--to make heads or tails of it right now. She doesn't want to listen to Wei Wuxian's favorite (sorry WWX), but this is also nobody's fault.]

Wei Wuxian is a musician himself, so I'm sure his input was invaluable. I'd still like to hear your thoughts on them, since you made the final decision. What song did you choose?

[She did indeed make the final decision, and that's something she's very aware of. So she smiles at Furina, setting aside that ruefulness for something brighter again--not in the sense of shoving it away or under the rug, but simply setting it aside for now with the practiced skill of someone who just doesn't tend to dwell much.]

I'll do my best! But first, here's the song.

[I did research for this thread. Anyway, she plucks out sheet music for the song in question.]

The lyrics are kind of sad, but... I dunno. Something about it stuck out to me.

[She can't describe or explain it. She just knows that it stood out, and so she picked it.]

[Furina takes the sheet music with her thanks, and holds it out in front of her.]

Let's see... I've used my voice a lot recently, so it might be a little overtaxed. An interesting piece...

[Nothing that she can't handle, though; her confidence hasn't waned, even with the warning she gave Ringo. Though she doesn't do an entire run of warm-up exercises, she does test her voice with a short string of well-practiced notes.

She lightly hums the first few bars a couple of times, testing the melody and tempo, before beginning to sightread the piece in its entirety. Her voice isn't quite as developed for fully operatic pieces, but her rendition is full of rich vibrato and longing.]

[... Ah.

It's... different listening to Furina sing it.

Why is it different? She's technically wonderful as well. But there's something about that longing, something about the emotion that Furina puts into it that's--

(If... Furina had sung all of these arias for her, would Ringo have been able to understand them without needing to ask Wei Wuxian?

She feels like she understands this one, now.)

And so she listens, expression a little awed and entirely fixated as she does.]

[There's silence after she finishes, Furina's eyes briefly closing once she no longer needs the guidance of the music to sightread through it. Those final notes leave the now-empty echo in the library almost haunted in their wake.

Once all is still, she opens her eyes again, lowering the music and the hand she'd pressed to her chest to feel her diaphragm as she practiced.]

Why did you pick that one? [she asks before she renders her verdict.]

[It's a good question. Ringo's quiet for a moment as she thinks about it, brow furrowing.

Why...? Ringo feels like she knows, in her chest.

It's just finding the words to put to it.]

There were a lot of them that were classified as "romantic", you know?

[...]

And maybe this one's kind of sad. It's about partings, right? But...

[She's thought a lot about partings, recently. Figue's tear-stained face. Ringo's fears of almost losing the people she loves. And now...]

... Feels like sometimes the fear of a parting reveals how much you really love someone. Just... it hit me like that. The love's there, no matter what... or something?

[She's struggling to find words, but she's really trying.]

[She really is trying, and Furina can tell she's putting her best effort into describing the emotional impact of the aria.

How can she not understand the tremendous capacity of art to make the viewer feel when she gives an answer like that.]

Well said, Ringo. It's a love song for something the speaker lost, but in reaching out, she wants to touch what remains of the connection. In a way, it's very haunted.

[The other part of the song, in its heroine's plaintive longing, that Furina feels in her own chest, is that whatever the singer is longing for is something that cannot be returned. There is no going back, which both saddens the tone of the song and strengthens the tone of the love.]

And sometimes, love endures in the smallest things...a song, or a willow tree. It's a very evocative piece of music.

[... Right. Isn't that what's so amazing about humans? Or maybe it's a Furina thing. Ringo really can't imagine Arrow describing an aria quite so evocatively either, so...

Maybe it's just Furina who can break it down like this, in the way Ringo wanted to say but couldn't.]

"Love endures in the smallest things"...

[What a lovely way to put it. What a lovely thought. She wants to believe in that with all of her heart.

A beat, and then very suddenly:]

Hey--it doesn't have to be tonight, because I know it's getting late and you didn't sign up for that and it was just supposed to be me showing you a song, but.

... Would you go over some of the other ones with me sometime? [Some of the other songs she looked at.] It feels like... I understood this one better when you sang it.

[But also when Furina broke it down for her.]

[Furina lifts her head and cocks it slightly to the side. She'd had no idea that, despite purported lack of creativity, Ringo was so interested in music. Maybe it's just her fascination with newness driving it.]

That shouldn't be a problem if you're willing to listen closely. I've watched more musicals and operas than I've performed, but I can tell you a thing or two. [She places a hand to her chest, just over her heart.]

In the meantime, I'll enter this song into my repertoire. It'll bring the house down during the showcase of our talents.

...Not literally, of course, hehe. That's also an expression.

[Good of Furina to make sure Ringo understood the idiom because half the time she absolutely does not and just pretends like she does.

But she grins in response, slowly lighting up, because:]

Then that means I passed the test? Hell yeah! We can go on a date then, you and me!

[Oh...she is extraordinarily bright, isn't she? Furina's eyes widen a little bit before she beams.]

Of course, that shall be your hard-earned reward for passing my challenge! Since your choice was so impressive this time, I leave it to you to bring us somewhere exceptional.

[She doesn't know any good date destinations...but she's not going to say it that way.]

[Ringo loves winning, but even more than that, Ringo loves feeling like she did something good. And... for some reason, on top of that, Furina's approval feels--

Well.

Things to think about later. For now, there's a date to plan, and it's getting late ~~and Shay and Cal should really wrap up this thread~~.

So, with clear enthusiasm and determination:]

Count on it! It'll be a blast for the both of us, trust me!

[And the date is sealed.]

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week one | match ceremony

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