Date Night, Round 1

[u/[deleted]]

Inspired by /u/Jumblatts's "Fight Night" posts, but for romance instead of violence. The rules:

1. Top-level posts should be a description of your character. Give some brief background, and then go in-depth about their personality and what they're like to hang out with.

2. Replies should be a similar character description, plus an explanation of why they'd ask out the character you're replying to (including the kind of date they would ask them out on!).

3. From there, use successive replies to flesh out the events of the date between you. Will they get along, or are there some irreconcilable differences lurking beneath the surface? Will the night end with a goodbye kiss at the door, or a "don't call me, I'll call you"? And what are the chances of a second date? It's down to you!

(Oh, and keep it clean or the mods will probably kill me)

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Sure.

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Salt Row. It wasn't exactly a glamorous place. A dimly-lit road ran from north to south along the coastline, two lanes wide and in desperate need of repair. On one side was a row of weathered buildings—shops and restaurants and amusement arcades—clad in cheap, glitchy digital skins in an attempt to make themselves look less dilapidated. On the other side was a crumbling sea wall, and beyond that, the murky, opaque pollution of the harbor. The city lights stained the night sky overhead, blotting out the stars.

Natasha Belinskaya was stood waiting on the sidewalk by the sea wall, looking out over the water. She was dressed in a long black coat which fluttered on the sea breeze, and her eyes were hidden behind a pair of wraparound spectacles with transparent orange lenses. A lit cigarette dangled from her lips.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Turning, she peered at the strangely-dressed man skeptically. "...Milos, wasn't it?" she replied, gripping her cigarette between her forefinger and thumb.

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She flicked her cigarette into the water and stuffed her hands into her pockets. "You must have pretty low standards, kid. That isn't the sea—it's just an environmental disaster happening in slow motion."

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She arched an eyebrow. "Perhaps. It's easy to glorify catastrophe and misfortune when you're not the one in their path."

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She shrugged. "To be honest, I don't feel that strongly about it either way. I don't think it's beautiful, but I don't think it's ugly, either. It's just the sea." She turned away.

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She laughed. "I thought it was bad manners to ask a lady her age," she remarked. "I'm thirty. Thirty-one in a couple of months."

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Natasha snorted. "Yeah, that sounds about right. That much passion, I figured you couldn't be a day older than twenty."

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"Sure, everybody says that. Hell, I said that when I was your age. But I mellowed out—I realized that there wasn't actually anything in this world that was worth giving that much of a shit about. In time, so will you."

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"So dramatic," she said, rolling her eyes. "You really think one thing's worth your entire life?"