"Oh no--!"

"-- I'm late!"

Two human bodies collided - male and female, black hair and brown. They went down hard, and only the thickness of the carpet prevented any bruising. The girl ended up on top, and had to brush her errant hair away from her freckled face.

"Sorry!" she exclaimed. "I didn't see you! I was late for--"

"-- the shipfest?" the guy finished. "Me too. I'm Khroma."

"KittyEden," the girl provided. "So you're here for the shipping?"

"Mais oui," Khroma agreed, and KittyEden swooned.

"You speak French! That's so romantic! The only way you could be more romantic is if you had a rose between your teeth!"

Khroma winced. "Tried that once," he said. "It's... not as good as it sounds."

On the thick carpet, footsteps made no sound; the pair didn't even realise someone had joined them until he spoke. "This must be the place, then."

KittyEden turned her head, and Khroma peered past her at the tall man looming over them. "That is a very impressive beard," he said.

"Thank you," the newcomer said, smiling. "I'm Elcalion. And this must be the shipfest."

"What?" "No..."

Elcalion raised an eyebrow. "No? What are you doing, then?"

KittyEden looked down, realising that she was still on top of Khroma. "Falling over?" she offered.

"Looks more comfortable than I remember," Elcalion chuckled. "So you're not here for the shipping?"

"We are," Khroma said, "but we can't find it."

Elcalion shook his head. "You don't find it," he told them, "it finds you. You trip over a sexy woman, or a hot man, and just... go with it."

Khroma and KittyEden looked at each other. "Well, we got the first part done," Khroma said slowly.

The running figure caught them all by surprise, ploughing into Elcalion and knocking him down on top of the other two. The newcomer, wearing a badge proclaiming "Hi my name is y2k890!", was caught in the collapse. "Oh no! Now I'll never make it to the shipfest!"

"My dear y2k890," Elcalion said, wrapping one arm around KittyEden, the other around y2k890, "the shipfest, for us, is right here."