Charitable Competition

[its_me_hooray]

Characters: Materia, (viva_la_materia) Night (its_me_hooray), open to Kagerou (weaver_girl) to keep the tally, and YOU!
Date/Time: BACKDATE to May 28th, all day. Sorry this is so late!
Location: The Bazaar
Rating: PG for cooties.
Summary: Two rivals have a "Who's the Better Kisser" contest by opening up competing kissing booths in the bazaar! One coin per kiss! Of course, there's a

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Night

[its_me_hooray]

Well, here goes nothing! The demon thought, seated in his chair and tuning his beloved guitar. Feathers the chocobo, fully grown now, seated comfortably next to the stand, and was happy to see the occasional child happily tossing a bread crust or an apple his way. The avian was on cloud nine scooping them up with his beak and helping himself to free snacks.

Night selected his favorite pick, checking to make sure his things were ready: Small basket for coins? Check. Curtains to block his view of Materia, but still able to be moved so he could catch her inevitably cheating? Check. Slips of paper and a nice pen for autographs? Double check!

With a sigh, he leaned back in his chair and strummed the guitar once to check his tuning. The instrument sang perfectly, over a year of practice paying off.

He kicked his feet up onto the counter, and began to play. There wasn't enough music on this particular avenue anyway... so he'd play any song he knew while he waited.

Re: Night

[cathar_jedi]

So he had gone through with it after all. Watching, Juhani exhaled through her nose, not quite forcefully enough to call it a sigh. Well, she was here already, and there was some time before her morning shift began on the Farm.

She approached the stand, sending a steadying thought to his companion in the hopes that Feathers would not jump up to greet her. There was a pouch at her belt full of the dry, pebbly meat-smelling product generally referred to as "kibble", though privately Juhani felt that it was very similar to processed breakfast cereals.

"It seems that your playing has improved," she said.

[its_me_hooray]

The bird recognized Juhani immediately, his large talons bringing him upright in preparation to stride right over and start preening... but he felt so damn, so relaxed. The chocobo trilled a happy sound to her, and chose to instead preen a large wing. A little alarm bell sounded in his bird brain that there was something interesting in that pouch. Feathers made a simple note to definitely investigate soon.

Night's attention focused when the chocobo made that first sound, and he paused his play to wave. "Morning, Juhani!"

And he beamed at the compliment, nodding his head and continuing to strum with gusto. "Hey, thanks! One of the other farmhands suggested starting up a little band for fun, but I don't think I'm ready for super rock stardom! Maybe next year or something."

Right. Right. Why he was here. "Would you like to make a donation?"

[cathar_jedi]

"Yes, hello," she told the chocobo gravely, reaching down to cover her belt pouch with a hand. "If you behave, I will give this to you before I leave."

"Good morning, Night. Perhaps you could make a living as a busker?"

"I may as well," she said. "It is for a good cause." And she was far from short on cash. "However, I would prefer not to be kissed."

Materia

[viva_la_materia]

Alright, this is it! The weather was all right, the Bazaar was bustling with customers, and Materia was totally buzzed on the vibe of competition. She couldn't help bouncing a little in her seat as she surveyed the sea of potential customers. (Some of them were even kinda cute! Bonus!)

She'd brought a floral teapot from home for her coins, but she didn't have the money at the moment for anything too expensive (and stealing decorations from the Bazaar to decorate a stall in the Bazaar bordered on idiotic)... So she'd simply splurged on some bright, cheap paper streamers and gone to the Park that morning to cut as many flowers as she figured she could get away with, dropping the colorful bouquets into cups and clean empty cans from home and arranging them all over the stall.

Elbows propped on the counter, she shot a Look at the curtains Night had put up. She was convinced that jerk was gonna try and use 'em to cheat somehow. Thank goodness for Kagerou!

Anyway, he might have music, but she had charm! Putting on her cutest

[awokentospring]

Spring didn't like to think he was cheating by also considering to give Materia a coin too, but he did feel a little awkward visiting her too swiftly after having already helping her rival's booth. So, instead he had taken the time to go on a short run around the bazaar to calm his nerves before approaching

[viva_la_materia]

Materia blinked and sat up slightly, startled. She'd been staring up at the patterns of tiles on the walls of the Bazaar, zoning out somewhat, since that was more relaxing than fretting about how little business she was getting so far. (It wasn't like Night was doing much better, after all.)

But now, a friendly-looking oddball with a nice smile and a truly awful haircut had appeared in front of her stall, and she had...no idea who he was. He probably knows my name from the journals, right?

Either way, he seemed like an okay guy, and he was a potential customer! She straightened up and brightened her smile back to a full 110%. "Better now that you're here!" she exclaimed. "Business has been flatter than last week's soda, sheesh. I...don't think we've met, though. What's your name?"

[awokentospring]

She seemed quite excited to see him, and that made smiling quite a bit easier for Spring. He didn't mind that she seemed to be lost on who he was. He probably should have introduced himself first, actually.

"We have not yet met in person! I am called Spring!" He made a dramatic gesture with his arm. "I have come to help your charity!"

Not that he planned on giving or receiving a kiss. He would be content with just a hug, or even feel comfortable just handing her a coin to help out. Of course that would mean the score-keeper wouldn't be able to add to her tally, but he hadn't kissed Night either so they would still be relatively even.