valentine's mingle

[idolpro]

Who: Romantic couples ♥
Where: Wherever romantic couples are sold
When: Day 91, morning

[ Good morning, idols! Isn't today wonderful? The sun is shining just a little brighter today, the hotel seems just a little more vivid in color today - and for good reason, it seems!

There are balloons and decorations going from outside of your dorm down to the lobby, all heart shaped in a variety of colors, with cute words like Smarties. Things like "KISS", "LOVE", "XOXO", etc - there are even a few blank ones if you just want to write your own messages on them, should you get a sharpie to do so. You can detach them from their places - in fact, there are several gathered up at your apartment's entrance with heart-shaped half-pound weights, as if encouraging you to take them with you!

When you take them, you'll feel just a little bit encouraged - to be honest, to be brave, to be bold, and perhaps even to give the balloon away to someone else. It doesn't really do much else - that little bit of encouragement isn't even all that much, just enough to give a little pep to your step. Even so, it's nice! Giving things to people is nice!

Speaking of giving things to people, there are heart shaped boxes flooding the kitchen and lobby. Cute! They're filled with chocolates or other snacks or matching accessories, jewels and diamonds or even maybe this specific horse? Everything you can find in the boxes are ~50 points in the shop, although highly limited to snacks and accessories and bizarre novelty items only C would appreciate as Valentine's gifts. (Though miniature, so they can fit in the box, you know. The Furby army is miniature.) There's a catch though! In order to open these boxes (and therefore find out what's inside), you have to follow the instructions on the tag: two or more people must help open the box by tugging the ribbon. If you don't do that, the box won't open, no matter how much you try to pry it; if you cut the ribbon off the box will still not open, and if you try to break open the box, the. . . insides will just be destroyed, but go off, I guess?

At the café, the menu has been transformed to ♥ Valentine's Day ♥ themed food items. Largely, you'll just find the featured items to be red velvet in flavor, and everything heart shaped from food items to the very plating itself. Cute!

The themed menu and gifts will stay around until the end of Day 94, so you can take your time with this. (Heart Games will be placed out of time when they run, so you do not need to take that into consideration before playing.) Happy Valentine's Day ♪ ]

Comments

[puzzlers]

[ he's got a pair of the hand-horses, who are nose to nose because magnets. it's terrible. if you want them, intensity, they're yours. ]

You look... thrilled to be here.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

Obviously. What's to like?

[puzzlers]

Free stuff. [ holds up one of the boxes with the "horses" standing on top. ] But I guess there's not much to enjoy. But I'll take boring over anymore murder.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

They're just trying to placate us between bad games. Just like the mistletoe.

[THAT BEING SAID.

Pointing to the horses]

You want to keep those?

[puzzlers]

I know. At least they didn't make a game of it.

[ looks down at them. ]

[ why do these exist??? ]

Not. at. all. You want them? [ offers his kissing hand-horses to intensity. ]

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

Absolutely! They're a classic.

[puzzlers]

[ that's subjective. ]

They're all yours. Enjoy.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

[Strong magnets though. Hmmm, he might need a plan B with these if he can't keep them apart for long]

Gift hunting for someone?

[puzzlers]

[ what are you planning intensity? ]

Not really, no. I’d already inadvertently done that...

But, uh, I was more interested in the candy. [ free candy is the best can- wait. ] What about you?

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

I was wondering if there was secret buried treasure hidden in these boxes.

Like this one.

[Holds up a small box that would probably fit some fancy smancy jewelry piece]

Maybe it has a spare eyeball. That would be useful.

[puzzlers]

[ looks at the box in his own hands. ]

I’m not so sure treasure is the right word to describe this stuff. How many of them have you opened so far?

Useful? Plan on letting someone take yours?

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

It's always useful to have spare body parts lying around. You never know when you're going to need them.

[As for his first question]

Not enough to be a good sample size scientifically.

These horses are the best in the haul by far.

[puzzlers]

[ he doesn’t want to think about intensity’s body part stash. ]

Makes sense. [ but that still doesn’t take away from how unsettling it is. ]

Do you want to open some more then? Who knows, maybe we’ll find more weird horses for your growing collection. [ just let him keep all the candy. ]

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

[Please. He doesn't want any of the candy. Ugh.]

Sounds boring.

Let's at least raise the stakes a little.

[puzzlers]

[ not you! yugi wants all of the candy! ]

How can we raise the stakes opening heart boxes?

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

[Well for one---

What if grabs two boxes and uses "Gadgeteer" to just merge them together.

That's one way to raise the stakes.]

[puzzlers]

Why stop at two?

[ uses quick as a wink to grab a couple more. offers them to intensity. ]

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

[Go go gadget Valentines box]

Four daring enough for you?

[puzzlers]

Sure, let's do it.

[ he should probably worry about what fusing these boxes together has done to the contents, but he's more excited than anything. grabs one of the ribbons and tugs. ]

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

[Well the box is definitely bigger. And heavier. And the ribbons have all merged to form this nice white/pink/red swirl.

But yeah.

Who knows what kind of Pandora's box thing is gonna happen when they open it]

I'm not responsible for any trauma - mental or physical - that comes from opening this.

[puzzlers]

I'll be sure to keep that in mind.

[ though he's really not worried. what's the worst that could come out of this thing? ]

You really think it's going to be bad? [ maybe it'll just be a bear made out of condoms that spits out those awful chalky hearts. ]

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

No. But I'm covering my bases in the event that it is.

On three?

[puzzlers]

Not going to call a live and exploit this experiment?

As long as it doesn't explode I think I'll be ok. [ nods. ] On three. [ gets ready to tug at the ribbons. ]

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

[Welp.

How about an assortment of trinkets and jewelry of the chocolate variety? As in yes, that is definitely chocolate. And that jewelry is going to melt if you don't eat it]

[puzzlers]

Huh... well this isn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be.

[ lifts up the chocolate necklace to give it a once over. ]

I gotta say I'm a little disappointed that something crazy didn't happen. What do you think?