dualislogs | they show you how to swim

they show you how to swim

WHO: All Dualizens, old and new
WHAT: Your regularly scheduled NAPs event for the month
WHERE: Dualis Oasis
WHEN: Nov. 7-10
WARNINGS: Please use these if applicable!

Look at all of these bright, shining new faces! There’s even a few less bright, less shining faces - maybe even a few folks without faces - but hey, this city welcomes all types. Chances are, if you’ve just arrived, you're seeing some pretty crazy things, unless you're used to an eye-blinding amount of neon, robots, weird-ass technology, magic, and an omnipresent police force...and hey, if you are, congrats, you're gonna settle in juuuuust fine. But for the rest of you, the Head knows this has gotta be pretty overwhelming, right?

Well, since your quaint individual processing units are probably having a hard time, why not link up with another one? By which the Head means...

Hello, new citizens of Dualis,
and welcome to your monthly Network Adjacency Protocol~!

NAPs are a monthly community networking event similar to the Earth concept of speed dating! Two citizens (new arrivals and old hands alike) are placed at a table together with a handy cue card of queries to help break the proverbial ice. Ask queries and receive results, or ignore the card and yeet yourself straight into a brand new friendship! But don't be too shy, you've only got ten minutes together, and if you just sit in silence for the whole ten, the Network Admins are likely to come supervise and try to repair the uplink through a mild shock to the ol' central nervous system. You might find yourself saying all sorts of unintended facts about yourself if that happens...probably better to just make friends, right? Who doesn’t like friends?!

The weather outside may be taking a turn toward chilly, but you can still get your swim on during this month’s NAPs, held at the Dualis Oasis, an indoor temperature-controlled aquatic amusement park with giant slides, swimming pools, and lazy winding float rivers. Appropriate swimming gear is required for entry to this part of the park, but there are a number of shops just outside that will gladly sell you swimwear and accessories.

For those of you who wish to avoid a humid environment or just hate fun, a dehumidified lounge and restaurant offer quieter, dryer spaces for chatting and snacking. The actual speed-friending itself is in progress here, but you’re welcome to stick around and continue conversations with your new friends.

So c’mon, what are you waiting for? Just dive right in for fun and friendship - the water’s fine, fine, fine, just like everything else in this fair city. But hey, remember to play safe. No running!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Aqua bumps into Arkady on her own inner tube, floating along through the water. By this point, she's been floating along long enough that she's getting too restless to really enjoy it. Relaxing isn't exactly her strong suit.

"I guess so. This isn't really what I'm used to." Despite having a name that invokes water images, Aqua hasn't really done a lot of swimming or relaxing in her life. "I was thinking I would try one of the slides soon."

"It's not what I'm used to either," she smiles all the same though. It's actually a bit nicer than what she's used to if she's honest. There's an abundance of water around where she lives back in her own world but it's not exactly good for relaxing. In fact the last time she was in water she didn't get the greatest of surprises. Not being used to it seemed like a positive to her, at least in this case.

"You should! They're great fun! You can go super fast all the way down and then," she gently splashes a tiny bit of water, "sudden splash!"

Aqua manages a light laugh at the demonstration. "Is that your favorite part? The water slides?" If Aqua knows Ven, he's probably spending a lot of time up the slides. Putting speed and water together? Yeah, he's definitely gonna be trying those out at some point.

"My friend Ven will probably enjoy those. I've just never been good at relaxing."

"Yes! I liked riding the water cart back home but this is much more exciting." After all a water cart is just that: a cart to deliver water. That's hardly that exciting. The slides though? That was exciting and carefree. There's no reason for them, they just exist. It's nice to experience something that just exists for the sake of fun.

"I know someone like that. She's too focused on work to relax and then gets all," she scrunches her face up into a scowl. "grumpy and serious." The look fades and she gives a smile. "Maybe you should try to relax some now. Before chances fade away." The robot fiasco shows that there's a lot of bad going on here. Hidden and not so hidden. So maybe if they could relax some, they should. At least that's what she figures.

"That almost sounds like Radiant Garden," Aqua says wistfully, thinking back to how much water had once been in that world. She lets her head tilt back a little bit on her water raft. "There were fountains all over that world. You could ride some of the water sprays to get up to the top of the fountains. It was so beautiful and everything was lush and green."

How much was left now? She hasn't seen it in over ten years, after all. So much could have happened. Didn't it fall to darkness, too?

"That sounds like something Ven would say." This doesn't sound like a bad thing at all. Ven is her best friend, so Arkady sounding like him is definitely good. "I'll try. And maybe I'll try the water slides later, too." That might be better for her, honestly. Fun and relaxing, but without the chance for her brain to run away from her.

"Oh that sounds much nicer than Whitechapel! I want to ride a water spray to a top," Arkady replies with a tiny little huff as she splashes her feet gently in the water. It's a great injustice that she can't ride a water fountain like that. "Is Radiant Garden where you're from?"

She gives a gentle smile. "Ven sounds wise. But you have to try the slides, not just maybe. You can't miss the best part!"

Ever the one who likes to be helpful, Aqua replies with, "Maybe we'll find a way to engineer one of those fountains here. Although it was a different system there. You had to jump into a stream of water blasting upwards at the bottom and that would propel you to the top." She mostly used those to travel from one area of the world to the next, but it also provided a way for her to sneak up on one of the groups of Prize Pod Unversed that dropped ice cream ingredients.

...It was weird.

"No, Radiant Garden was just a world I was trying to protect. I haven't been back in a really long time, so I don't know what it's like now. Maybe when I make it back off of this world, I'll be able to visit again."

"Oh! That would be fun! We should try it!" She's not a builder like a few of her other friends but she likes to try things. Though she can't help but think there are probably much more important things to put effort to here. Still, a distraction isn't bad, especially while talking at these things.

She tilts her head curiously. "Do you go to a lot of worlds?"

Aqua smiles. "I'll see if I can find someone who's good at that." There probably are a bunch of other, better things to do with their time here, but even stuffy Keyblade Masters need some fun in their lives. Ven would be proud.

"I used to, yes," she answers with a nod. "I was training to be a protector of all worlds, so that often meant visiting other worlds. Being here seems to be the first time a lot of other people have been away from home."

"If you do, let me know! I can build things." And maybe she could build something like that. It's not her specialty but she would be willing to try. There's not much she's not willing to try though.

"That must have been incredible! You must be very experienced!" She claps her hands excitedly. "Did you finish your training?"

That kind of sounds like a good side project here. For fun as well as possible irrigation. She'll have to think about it.

The questions are innocent enough, but still bring a sharp pain to her chest. She manages not to look completely downcast, though a bit of sorrow flashes behind her eyes anyway. "Yes, I did. But I think maybe I still have a lot to learn about the worlds and how to really help people. A lot of my experiences have... challenged a lot of what I was taught. So maybe I'm still not finished training, even if I passed my exam."

"Congratulations!" Arkady looks thoughtful for a second and then sympathetic as she catches a familiar flicker of sorrow behind Aqua's eyes. It's a flash she's all too familiar with herself, especially when it comes to trying to not look like how she's feeling on the inside.

"I think maybe we never really stop learning and training. There's always more," she offers a little smile with a touch of sadness. "And people change a lot. Sometimes they can't even be recognized anymore. So, maybe it's good you could still be training?"

That is actually a very good way of looking at the situation. Aqua admits that she hadn't really thought of it in exactly those terms before. She had thought that she wasn't fit to be a Keyblade Master, and the voices in the Realm of Darkness had really preyed on that thought, but to think that she really isn't done learning and that no one ever really is just puts everything into perspective for her.

"I think you may be right," she admits softly. "I couldn't help my best friends when they needed me most. Maybe I really do still have things to learn and even once I learn enough to help them... there's still so much to any world that maybe I'll never quite finish learning everything. Maybe that's the point. Life is a journey, right? It's about living and training, not exactly the destination."

"You wanted to help them though, and that matters. Sometimes you just can't help people. Sometimes they have to help themselves first. And sometimes you just have to accept they can't be changed." There's a sadness to the statement. It's something she's quite familiar with herself, from both sides of the equation. Then there were times where a change had to be forced. Arkady chooses to leave that little bit out though. Better left unsaid.

She smiles though. "Right! Life's a journey and you never know what will happen. Unless you do know, then you just shouldn't tell. People frown on that."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

they show you how to swim

a

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject