xp_logs | Training: speed dating

Doug continues Hope's training... by making her speed date.

Brainstorming ways to train Hope in the sort of ethically 'gray' skills she was interested in was sometimes a challenge for Doug, how to safely (and legally) teach an 18-year-old girl to manipulate, infiltrate, and investigate. And sometimes it made him feel just a little bit uncomfortable. But he also recognized that he was a much better potential mentor than some might be.

This night's cryptic text to Hope had only told her 'dressy, but not too dressy'. He looked more casual as he lounged by the door to the mansion - jeans and a henley. But he wasn't going to be involved in the evening, at least not directly.

Hope hesitantly come down the stairs, wondering what the topic of tonight's lessons were going to be. Dressed in a simple black skirt and green top with just a bit of sparkle, she hoped it would work for tonight. "We don't quite match." She observed as she approached Doug with a smile.

Doug chuckled. "You're on your own tonight. Well, sort of." He'd be observing, the better to provide feedback. He was fairly close-lipped about the exercise for the evening as they drove to their destination, waiting until they arrived at a trendy-looking lounge that had some young people milling about, and a board out front advertising a speed dating event.

She looked at the sign, back at Doug and back to the sign again. "You are kidding, right?" She muttered, though she still kept an easy smile on her face. She saw the looks from the various people near the sign, already checking her out with a kind of hidden frankness.

"Not kidding," Doug told her. "We still need to work on that blushing and stammering tendency of yours when it comes to flirting and discussion of sex and the like." He shrugged. "You're going to need to improve if you ever want to be the sort of player you're thinking about being."

"And speed dating will teach me that? I thought I handled Eric fairly well back at the art gallery." She still kept a smile on her face, observing the various people arriving. "Wait..." Something suddenly occurred to her from that night. "Whom am I going to be speed dating with exactly?"

Doug chuckled. "Equal opportunity. 50-50 ladies and gentlemen." He tapped a few keys on his phone. "Okay, the way it works is that you have about five minutes to make a good impression. Then, at the end, you indicate the people you want your contact information forwarded to, and if they also selected you, then you each get the information on the other person."

"Okay..." Hope nodded as she took in the information. "And my goal for tonight is? To get on the list with as many people as possible?" Maybe if she tried to think of it as an assignment, it would less... embarrassing?

"Studies say that the average speed dating participant winds up with about a 20 or 30 percent match rate." Doug looked at Hope, watching the slight flush in her cheeks. He raised an eyebrow. "I expect you to do better." He pulled up the event's particulars from the lounge's website that he'd signed her up on. "It says 'dates' are five minutes long, so in a two-hour event...you'll probably meet about 20 people. Your goal is 50 percent - men -and- women."

She tore her eyes away from the people still arriving. "Fifty percent? I am never..." She visibly stopped herself, before taking a deep breath. "Alright. Let's do this." With those words she headed of to join the throng of young people now outside the door.

Well, that was a lecture avoided on setting oneself up for failure. Doug stationed himself inside the lounge away from the area that had been set up for the event, but with a good field of view, and ordered himself some snacks. People watching was one of his favorite pastimes even without the added benefit of seeing how Hope carried herself this time around.

The organizer said a few words laying out the parameters of the event, and then a small delicate bell was rung and the participants were directed to their first seats.

Hope nervously made her way to her first assigned seat, wondering whom she would get across from her. She pulled up a smile as a young man with glasses took his seat. "Hey, nice to meet you. I am Hope." No points for originality here, but okay... It was only the first one for the evening.

"I'm Chris." The young man was reasonably well-dressed and attractive, if a bit awkward. He started to extend his hand as if to shake, then pulled it back as if he was second-guessing himself. "So, um..." he stammered a bit, clearly trying to come up with an interesting opening question or comment and drawing a blank.

"So tell me, Chris, if you had take out a girl to show her a good time, where would you take her?" Hope leaned forward slightly to indicate interest and tilted her head. She hoped the not too serious subject would put him at ease a little.

"Well, I..." Chris fidgeted, clearly nervous. This was obviously his first try at this sort of thing. "I mean, I think any night out should start with a nice dinner somewhere. Like...Italian or something. After that...I guess it would depend on what a girl," he coughed, "I mean, you, like to do." He shrugged a bit. "I mean, if you don't like dancing, then I wouldn't suggest going clubbing?" The last bit tailed off as a question, as if he was hoping for approval and also trying to subtly ask what sort of things Hope liked to do.

"I think a nice dinner is always a good start." Hope replied with a smile. "And if I am honest, I think I would enjoy some kind of theater above the clubbing. What would you enjoy doing after a dinner if you had choice?"

"I like music?" Nearly every sentence was ending on an interrogative tone, Chris' awkwardness coming to the fore. "Not like dance, but like, going somewhere to see a group play. I like...I like jazz," he said, warming to his subject and forgetting to turn every statement into a question.

"Jazz? I am not that familiar with it myself, but I have heard there are some great Jazz cafes in town. What is a good place if you are going for a 'first encounter' so to speak." He seemed to be loosening up a little and Hope felt some tension of her own relax. Maybe she could do this.

Chris was lost in discussion of good first groups to see, and harmonies, and favorite musicians, and in the blink of an eye five minutes had passed and the bell chimed to signify the end of their time. "It...it was really nice to meet you," Chris said with a hesitant smile.

"Thanks Chris, it was really nice to meet you as well." Hope easily returned his smile as she stood up and moved towards the next table. Whom would it be this time?

Hope's second 'date' for the evening seated himself across from her. Where Chris had been slightly nervous and awkward, this heavyset man with a close-trimmed beard seemed...gruff. "Jim," he introduced himself, clearly not a man of many words, either.

"Hi Jim, I am Hope." She replied cheerfully. This man... he did not really seem the type to go to events like this on his own... "So, did you end up being signed up by friends as well?"

Jim grunted noncommittally, his body language rather closed off. He hadn't quite folded his arms across his chest, but it was close. His eyes flicked up and down, sizing Hope up. "Signed up by friends, huh?"

"Well... that was putting it a little simple. I had been wanting to for a while, but I never really dared to. So they decided to 'help' me." Hope fluently spun her story further. It was not even that far from the truth. Hopefully he would react to this, because his glances were making her uneasy.

"You seem like the sort who could get a date whenever she wanted," Jim observed, the mild tone belying the small undercurrent of judgment in the statement. His expression stayed studiously neutral throughout, neither smiling nor frowning, not really reacting emotionally at all.

"Appearances can be deceiving, Jim." Was all she replied with before volleying back. "How did you end up here tonight?" There was just a little bite in the tone and Hope's eyes cooled a little.

"Saw a sign for it, decided to see if anyone interesting might show up." By the dismissive tone, Jim clearly didn't classify Hope in that category. It wasn't clear what he was looking for, but he'd definitely decided she wasn't it.

"A spur of the moment thing then obviously." Hope sat up straight, her voice falling back into cool formality. "Thank you for your time, Jim.

It was another sixty seconds or so before the bell rang, but the pair had clearly exhausted the limits of their interaction. Hope's next table companion after the shuffling around, was a short Asian woman with a pixie cut and personality to match. "Hi, I'm Kristina," she said, confidently offering her hand for a handshake.

Hope reached out and shook her hand. "Hey Kristina, my name is Hope. Have you been having a good time so far?" She was not sure where that came from, but she would go with it for now.

"So far? Yeah. Getting to meet people, hopefully make a connection, see where things go." Kristina seemed much more comfortable in her own skin than either of Hope's first two pairings. "So, tell me about this 'Hope' person," she continued with a smile, making a frame with her hands as if she were watching a small television screen. "What's she like?"

"What would you like to know?" Hope asked, smiling. "Uhm...I enjoy organizing parties, I loves the arts and I am not too fond of camping. Too many bugs and too amenities?" She took a sip from her juice as a cover for her nerves and asked: "How about you? What is your passion?"

"Making out with cute girls." Kristina said it completely deadpan, seeing if she could get Hope to choke on her juice.

The juice went indeed suddenly down her throat and Hope had to cough twice. A faint blush colored her face as she blinked a couple of times. "It... it sounds like an interesting way to spend an evening?" She managed to get out.

"Mhm. An entire evening." Kristina broke out in a grin and shook her head. "I take it you're not really on that side of the fence, are you, Hope?" There was no malice in the question. "So what brought you to a bi-friendly event, then?"

"I was kind of... I was kind of wondering what it was like?" The blush intensified a little. "Trying to find out where my path goes, I think." Hope explained hesitantly.

"Aw." The mischievous look on Kristina's face softened into something a bit more friendly. "Now I feel a little bad about teasing you." She pursed her lips. "Only a little, though. So, come to any conclusions yet?" She seemed genuinely curious as to what Hope's answer would be.

"Not yet." Hope shook her head and relaxed a little again. "The night is still pretty early, is it not?"

"That it is." The bell caught them both by surprise. "Well, good luck with that whole finding your path thing, Hope," Kristina told the other woman.

"Thanks Kristina." Hope stood, ready to move to her next table. Looking around, she spotted the tiny table in the far corner and made her way over. To her surprise no one came over and she frowned, looking around if she could find someone in the organisation.

Just as Hope was about to get up from her seat to go in search of someone, a woman slid breathlessly into the other seat. "Sorry about that, there was a phone call from work that I had to take. Robyn-with-a-y," she introduced herself, making the small sentence sound almost like one word.

"Hi Robyn. I am Hope." She poured a glass of water from the pitcher on the table and slid it over to her table mate. "You look like you could use this. Not an emergency I hope?"

"Not really an emergency, just that someone didn't show up to teach a class." Robyn flipped her hand airily. "I'm a yoga instructor. But I told them I wasn't available, so they'll find someone else to handle it."

"That sounds like a pretty intensive job." Hope commented, pulling up a smile. "Have you been doing it for a long time?"

"I haven't been teaching on my own for long, but I've been doing yoga for a while now, since I was in high school." Robyn was clearly energetic and passionate about her chosen job. "What about you?" she asked Hope. "I mean, I can ramble on about yoga forever. What's your passion?"

"I think I would say I enjoy a great many things." Hope winked. "Lately I have had the chance to move into event planning with my work though and I really enjoy that. I have always liked organizing parties and those kinds of things."

"Ooh, event planning! I have a friend who works at a hotel doing that sort of thing. So do you do, like, weddings, or conferences, or what?" Robyn leaned forward and folded her hands under her chin, very interested in Hope's replies.

"Charity events mostly. I work as PA for someone who runs the charity side of the company, so that is how it came on my path." Hope explained a little further. "Is yoga your only passion, Robyn or do have any more?"

"Hm. I mean, I like going out to clubs with friends, and I'm a big fan of those travel cooking shows where they visit places all over the world. But I don't know that you'd necessarily call any of that a -passion-." Robyn shrugged. "I'd call it more like...interests. For passion it's pretty much yoga and meditation and being at peace with the world around me." She paused. "Which is more difficult than I'm probably making it sound. I mean, I can get hella road rage sometimes."

"I would not directly have guessed you to be such a fierce, fiery woman." Hope kidded gently. "Looks like yoga and meditation is doing it's work pretty well, if you ask me."

"I think it's important that you find ways to relieve stress," Robyn opined, then pouted as the bell rang. "Darn, too little time." She reached out and took Hope's hand in hers to give it a squeeze before standing up from her chair.

All in all there was Trevor, who was taking a sabbatical from his job to hike the Appalachian Trail, Bob, with a shaved head and very odd sense of humor, Zoe the dog trainer...a dizzying array of people, names, jobs, hobbies...

"So how do you think it went?" Doug asked as he walked Hope back to the car.

"Honestly, I have no idea." Hope replied honestly. "I have a few I think I got a match with, a few with who I know pretty sure don't have a match, but for the majority I truly don't know..."

"Well, I'm in the backend of their system, so as soon as they finish all the data entry, we should know." Doug had set his phone in the center console of the car in anticipation of it eventually beeping to indicate a data retrieval. "It looked like you were getting a bit more comfortable with things as the night went on," he observed.

"I think I did..." Hope mused as she reflected back on the evening. "I think it helped when I finally relaxed a bit myself. Not so focused on having to do this right and just kinda letting it flow. Even if I am pretty sure I sounded like an idiot sometimes." A vague blush tinted her face.

Doug shrugged. "Well, why don't you tell me your impressions of your matchups, what you noticed about them, and so on." He was always pushing her to exercise her skills of observation.

"I can think of at least two who didn't quite pan out. My second date, Jim, I clearly was not what he wanted. I think he wanted someone a little more... forward? And Kristina... I am afraid my old issue popped up again there." Hope started after considering.

"Who, Captain Brony Misogysaur? No, I'm pretty sure he was closeted and hating himself." That was the only explanation Doug could come up with for the man's behavior and body language. "Kristina...eh, I give you a 50-50 chance, you started to hit it off toward the end, seemed like."

"No." Hope shook her head. "I am pretty sure I did not. I think she was not interested in a neophyte with relationships between women. Chris... I think I made a decent chance there. Robyn, I definitely say it's 50-50."

Doug's phone chimed. "So, shall we see how you did?" he asked with a grin. "You want to look, or shall I just rip the band-aid off for you?" He couldn't resist a bit of teasing.

"I vote for just ripping of the bandaid." Hope replied immediately, a slightly apprehensive look on her face as she eyed the tablet Doug just pulled up.

"Survey says..." Doug paused just a moment to make Hope fidget. "Four out of ten for the men, only two of the women. Better than average for guys, but overall still needing some work, I think."

"I had expected worse to be honest. I have no idea how I even managed to reach that with the men." Hope shook her head. "I am guessing that means more speed dating in the future?"

"Well, practice -does- make perfect."