[r8] talking head: du ruo

[loveauthority]

[ Du Ruo is led to a quiet room within the resort with a pair of hammocks to suit the scene, and upon one of them is where the overseer sits. She beams, shuffling her cards in hand (she will not use these), and motions for Du Ruo to take a seat already!!!

This is the Talking Heads room, and there are cameras. Prepare to loosen those lips! ]

Comments

[mythologizer]

[Unfortunately, the misses are only going to perpetuate themselves from here on out.

Oh, dear, is this the material she's supposed to have been studying...?]

I'm sorry, I'm unfamiliar with that acronym. Maybe it's not very popular where I'm from.

[makeine]

[ no............. another..... ]

It's probably a different world thing, don't worry about it. What's your take on love? Just a miraculous thing?

[mythologizer]

Is this a famous story or a matter of celebrity?

[Both are probably "other world" things indeed. They wouldn't share the same traditions, and famous public figures have shifted a great deal in the past century in Eastia and other lands alike—what remains of those lands.]

Is love a miracle? [...] No. I don't believe it is. It's the temporary meeting of two souls, like stars crossing in the sky.

[makeine]

Celebrity.

[ and... that's a good answer, anna swinging gently in her hammock at it. ]

Yeah, I can agree with that. After all... the love of my life was waiting for me worlds away, rather than right at home, which is kinda sad when you think about it. He thinks it's romantic though.

[ that they were brought together too, not seamlessly but-- still, romantic. that love exists across time and space. ]

[mythologizer]

[She's doing her very best in this hammock, though she's sitting with the refined pose of someone who's trying to maintain pose while keeping very still so to avoid losing the position.]

Congratulations on finding exactly what you were looking for.

[And, as far as stories go, this is a rather romantic one. Anna won't catch her trying to debate it in the slightest.]

But from my research before traveling here, [of course, she read up on everything before her arrival,] your true love was not chosen for you by the matchmakers.

[makeine]

He wasn't! But I was so, so sure he was, even after it was obvious that we weren't matched at all.

[ her swings slow to a stop, and one has to wonder who the host really is. ]

Honestly, I almost threw the whole show just because I wanted us to walk up together one time, but thankfully for everyone that didn't come to pass. [ no, they got their chance in a different way. a less harmful way. ] Mark-kun's one of my very best friends though -- he was my match, and... there's enough similarities that I can see why. We balance each other, too.

[ but it didn't happen that way, she dug her grave in day one and tumbled farther than she meant. ]

The matchmakers can do their best, or their funniest, but things usually fall their own way. It'll be pretty funny to watch on the other side of things this time.

[mythologizer]

[Surely it's not a bad sign for Du Ruo's prospects if she's sitting here taking over the interview like she's the one in charge of hosting the show, right? It's just that she's indulging her intellectual curiosity...of course.]

You sound a little sadistic. I can't say I wouldn't feel the same way in your position.

[She chuckles, a soft and mysterious noise.]

Since I'm on the other side of it, I do admit to finding it vexing. How is it that you tout the outcome of this show, when some could point out that the results seem like pure coincidence?

[makeine]

The moment that changes someone's feelings can't be predict. That's all!

[ that's just it. the matchmakers can try all they want to guess, but it's the moments that make the difference. the same moments that turn them out "right" could be missed and turn out "wrong". ]

Oh, but there were people who were both matches and head over heels for each other in my round, at least. So the success rate isn't too bad! Like... three out of our five couples were? I would say six, but one of them doesn't count in this case.

[ sorry minami she loves u tho ]

[mythologizer]

[Fortunately for poor Minami, Du Ruo will be accounting for him and his match in her calculations, if only because it allows her to ask the following question:]

Tossing a coin a few times could yield the same results. Knowing the outcome of that flip, would it change your feelings and actions and contrive those "moments"?

[She hums. Her voice never stops being melodic and calm.] I look forward to seeing them as they occur.