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

Geez, in a way the guy makes him think of Zell, and it almost makes Nida want to laugh. As it is, he holds back, considering Tidus thoughtfully. Still, a whole city over the sea. It sounds...

"Beautiful," he smiles thoughtfully as he imagines it. "Lights all over the water would be stunning at night, right? You could do so many festivals for it, with the lights. Plus back in my world, water tends to be safer from monsters."

Or, at least, salt-water tends to be.

"Balamb isn't like that. It's a fishing village. Most people would call it 'quaint'. But it's going to grow in the future, I know it."

Lights all over the water would be stunning at night, right? Tidus nods, and it's amazing the way a little conversation can bring alive old memories, pushed so far bad. That, and probably the lifetime of actually seeing it: the countless activities, the colour wheel of lights. A brief pleasure warms Tidus, and it's strange. It should feel more sad, shouldn't it?

But he'll take it being pleasant for now.

"You've got a lot of love for the place." Very obviously. It makes Tidus grin cheerily to listen to. "What about you? You a fishing kind of guy yourself?"

He's teasing, just lightly. No problem if he is, though!

"I don't know if I'd say I love Balamb," Nida shrugs. Does he love the place? He... wouldn't have thought so. But right at this moment, in this place, he misses it. It's weird, to ache for the place so much. He always thought of home as the impersonal structures of Balamb Garden. He always thought the trees and skies were his place.

But Hyne, he misses Balamb right now, and the beaches.

"I eat fish, I don't do it. I'm a mercenary."

He got it wrong? That's fine. It's nice anyway to listen to. Show up in a weird city, have weird voices talk about your DNA, sit around and talk about peoples' homes and/or favourite places. Weird as it sounds, but pretty fun.

"Mercenary?" Though that's a strange job occupation to hear mentioned. Surprise echoes it, Tidus canting his head in thought. "Huh. Don't meet people like you often. ...What kind of work did you do?"

Monster stuff, maybe? He mentioned them a second ago.

Not often. But Tidus might well be surprised how many of them there are here. The people of what they've dubbed Hyne have definitely got a presence here.

"Recon," he says, which is a way to sum up 'spy' rather politely. "And it's a good line of work back home. Always someone paying for something. But I have a minor background in monster hunting. My turn for a question, right? Does your world have dragons or bears?"

Please say dragons. He wants another point.

Tidus thinks about that, his brow scrunching.

"We've got fiends, or monsters, whatever you wanna call them. But I dunno anything called those names."

If the guy's even still talking about creatures, anyway. Tidus is trying to remember the few names of fiends he ever picked up, but—nope, can't think of anything called a dragon or a bear back in Spira. His mind just keeps going to...flans. Too many flans.

No dragons OR bears. Wow. This... wasn't something Nida had considered. He definitely looks shocked.

"Well, you've definitely thrown me for a loop. I think it's fair that you get to ask a question while I try and process a world with neither. Don't know how that affects my bet."

That gets a crook to Tidus's mouth, humour on his face.

"Wanna tell me about the bet then?" Still a question in Tidus's books. "What's special about dragons or bears?"

Nida's going to feel so cheated if he ever learns about Bahamut.

"I got into a fight with a man from another world, about reasonable risks in our world. I'm a trained pole-arms specialist, and I was mentioning I have to work on strength. Because things like this happen."

His fingers skirt over a ring of scars, like teeth, over his stomach and down toward his hip. Scars that are like a massive mouth.

"This was a dragon, it almost killed me. I take them seriously. My world, though, lacks bears. They're apparently big, angry, fluffy with claws. He said bears are more common than dragons. So every time I meet someone from a new world, I ask if they have one, the other, or both. Bears were winning before I came here. Dragons are catching up."

Tidus looks because the guy gestures, both in his words and with his hand. And the marks are obvious once you actually pay attention anywhere other than his head. The scars tell a story that don't need to leave anything to the imagination.

It inspires some awe. Respect: For going through a close-looking call in the first place, but also coming out on top.

And yet, "So you're a dragon magnet?" comes out without a second thought. That comes right after, sheepishly. "Sorry."

Thanks brain. Thanks mouth.

Well that elicits a chuckle.

“I wouldn’t say that. I was about thirteen when this happened. I try and avoid the dragons in the training center. I’m armed to deal with the thick scales and armor. They’re these giant reptiles, sometimes that can fly. But my world has them. And they are scary. As a rule. Not scary? Can’t even be considered potentially a dragon.”

It's not what Tidus had meant, but it shows more about the guy's life: sharing the dangers of dragons, but apparently they're in some kind of training centre, or other. A training centre for mercenaries? The thought crosses Tidus's mind, as little sense it makes. Probably not really, but whatever.

He contemplates the description, and he can pin down a few fiends, but...

"There's stuff with scales and heavy armour," or Auron would be out of a job, "but scary? Everything looked like an ugly bastard to me." But as his thoughts file through the memories of the fiends met on the road, they drift to the real danger in Spira. What was considered scary above all else.

"...we had something that used to terrorise the land. You'd take it out, and it'd come back before long. A cycle of life and death." His has cooled considerably, his easygoing energy too. His gaze flickers onto Nida, then away. "We didn't call it a dragon—but it doesn't matter what it was called. It's gone now."

Schools for mercenaries. They make no sense.

"Sounds a bit like Lunar Cries. They effectively are a cycle of life and death. Creatures, monsters, falling from the moon. Yeah, or moon's trying to kill us."

But the 'used to' definitely makes a guy wonder.

"Guess you can't destroy a moon?"

Probably not, but Tidus is going for a joke, working his way back into a better mood. But also, fuck that moon.

"Not that we know of. Besides, moons affect tidal action. Destroying it would get the planet seriously fucked. So I'd rather just burn the whole surface."

Wouldn't that be interesting. And yes, it's a damn terrible moon. The worst sort of moon. He hates the moon.

"It drops monsters, and we do our best to fight back. Thus a school for mercenaries. We can be hired to deal with it."

Burning the surface? Okay, that sounds like an actual plan. Or a course of action to make into a plan, for people who could actually do it. Find a way to make it possible.

A lot more probable than his joke.

"So that's what you meant about a training centre?" Huh, that surprises Tidus, not forgetting that tidbit from earlier. "I always imagined mercenaries to be more... I dunno, solo." He's got one lone figure in mind, who probably really doesn't count. Tidus tips his head. "But you're the first mercenary I've met, I think. So."

So he doesn't know crap about mercenaries. Especially not other world ones.

Too bad their space tech probably can't do it. And no one knows where the monsters on the moon actually come from so it's not the best answer. It's just... something he wants.

"Some mercenaries are, but not as commonly on my world. Not anymore. I was raised at an academy that took in war orphans and trained us to fight. So, I'm probably not normal compared to some people, or some worlds."

Here it could mean something else. On other worlds, in other realities, it's definitely a whole different question.

Edited 2019-11-11 18:05 (UTC)

"Oh." It's one of those ohs, the sympathetic tone a person shares usually with condolences when someone mentions something like, war orphan. And on top of the image already painted of the guy's world, from the rather ordinary and idyllic fishing port town to a landscape threatened by fiends from the moon.

But Tidus knows there's nothing he can really say that would mean anything, so he's not going to tack on those condolences: the guy's grown up in this world, what does he need them for?, and moves on, instead. "Well, I talked to a woman who says she's some kind of space soldier where everyone lives in giant ships. I dunno if I'd want to guess anyone as normal here."

Oh come on, he hates that tone. So much. He doesn't need sympathetic tones. The world is a mess back home, he knows it. But he doesn't need it flaunted in his face. At least, though, Tidus resists the urge to try and console him. Nida might have punched the guy.

"Geez do I envy her," Nida says, wistful at the idea of living in space. Among the stars. He loves those as much as Tidus loves blitzball no doubt. "So, we've talked a bit about me. Tell me more about you."

Him? Tidus rolls his shoulders, eyes pointing upward as he contemplates where to start. What's there to say? I was star player of the Zanarkand Abes—except, the Zanarkand Abes probably never existed...

Not like the lives everyone else were willing to share, here. His, though...

It takes a second for him to look back at Nida, then just in his general direction. "I played sports," Tidus goes for, tone easy. Indifferent. He knows better by now than to say blitzball. "My name's Tidus—" since they never shared names. "—and I... don't really have anything interesting about me. Spent most of my life working up to be a professional player, then... I got caught up in some mess. Now I'm here."

That covers everything succinctly, right?

Now there was a story. Nida quirks an eyebrow and tilts his head to the side. Because there is a lot here to unpack. But the most important part is the one he latches onto.

“A mess? That’s evasive. Can I maybe pry?”

It really makes Tidus pause, hesitate. The guy's been decent to speak to, but there isn't any part of him that wants to get into it. Still, just leaving it like that... it makes it more than he wants it to be.

"Zanarkand, that city I told you about? It's gone." He rests his gaze firmly on the table between them. "I washed up on some shore elsewhere, and I ended up travelling with some...really good friends." A twinge of fondness. "But, that isn't my story to get into."

He looks over at Nida then. "That was my friend's pilgrimage. I was along for the journey."

It's simplified, and truthful—technically.

Pilgrimage? It isn’t a word Nida is familiar with. But something tells him he shouldn’t press. Not really. The evasion meant problems, the loss of a home too. Nida got that.

“I hope it was a good journey, and safe.”

"Yeah," he answers, nods with it. He wants to say more, or say something more upbeat, but his tongue gets trapped in his mouth. Has to think and start again.

"I'm still processing it, to be honest. The world's a better place now," he can at least say that, "and I uh... ...I guess you could say I'm used to ending up in new weird places?"

It's not entirely relevant, but it was either that, or leave the guy hanging for him to finish. Tidus rubs the back of his head, expression sheepish.

"Sorry. I didn't think I'd be this bad at questions. ...Did you wanna ask anything else?"

He offers it, even if currently, he isn't sure what he could say.

"Well, I suppose the next thing to ask is whether you guys had gone to space at all. I love space. Flying too, but really space is where it's at."

Some worlds had. His people hadn't done more than orbital stations.

they show you how to swim

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