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!

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Water polo? Tidus would ask about that, but let's keep it one subject at a time. Bring it up when there's an opportunity.

"If you're playing for serious, you know what you're doing." Saying that... "But games can get pretty rough. Drowning isn't the worst you've got to deal with. And I know how that sounds," he adds, "but it's an old game! Everyone knows how to prepare for the basics. Me, I worry more about getting thrown out into the spectators. It hurts like anything, and it sucks to pick yourself back up from!"

There's nothing more humiliating!

"So you played then?" That explained the excitement for the sport. David can't help but smile. "Were you good?"

It seems fair. And the guy can talk himself up all he wants, not like David would know the difference.

"Star player!" He shares enthusiastically, thumb pointed towards himself and all. "I was in the big leagues."

Because a sport as popular as Blitzball—the one singular sport that anyone really cared for back home—had more competitions than you could shake a stick at.

Tidus laughs though, a light thing, despite his exclaim and his joyous air. He leans into his seat, shaking his head. "Not that star anything matters if the game isn't around," he admits. And man, just thinking about it for a second starts bumming him out all over.

"What about you? Tell me I'm not the only guy to have the big game he enjoyed not around." You know, other than being on an entirely different planet away from one. But it's obvious Tidus isn't talking about anything as serious as that. "You got something you wish was here?"

Big leagues? How impressive. David smiles, because that's rather great for the guy. And is it wrong that he's thinking just how useful someone who is competitive sports fit might be? Probably.

"Skating rink. I want to watch hockey. I want to figure skate."

And it's definitely something he enjoys. Lots of ice.

"I have no idea what any of you just said is."

Alright, he can garner the vaguest of ideas (.......not really), but Tidus sounds pleased to say it. His company named exactly what he was looking for.

"You said something about a water game before too. Water...porto?"

Polo. He means polo. But he's interested to hear more about the water game with all the others.

Oh god, David's trying not to laugh over the whole idea of 'porto'. Hilarious.

"Water polo. It's people swimming in a pool, throwing a ball at nets. Doesn't sound nearly as good as Blitzball, actually."

"It's hard to match up to Blitzball." Very smug. Because if Tidus is going to continue talking up anything, it's going to be the sport itself.

"But come on," and he makes a continue motion at David with a hand, "tell me about your other stuff! What's so special about it? What do you need?"

Be as smug as you want, but David's amused by the man's pleasure with what he does. You have to love what you do.

"Well, hockey is a team sport. You play it in a rink, which is a patch of ice larger than some pools, but smaller than this place. Every one is on skates, and most of the people are in patching padding too. Everyone has sticks and the use these little puck. The point is to get pucks into these net goals. It's really hard too. And fights break it out. I love watching."

It didn't really sound that interesting at first (who wants to slip around on ice?), but once his speed friending partner mentions about the fights, oh.

"You got me at the fights breaking out." Seriously, bashing around people on ice? ...messy sounding, actually, but Tidus would be damned if he didn't want to see it once.

"So if none of these sports are around, what is popular? For place that's meant to have problems, it's busier than anywhere I've been for a long time."

Therefore, it has to have sports.

"The fights aren't the point," David laughs, shaking his head. But there were people that were only into hockey for the potential of it. And David? He didn't care for that so much as the skill and the struggle.

"It's popular back in my world, in some regions and countries. We have teams spread over a lot of cities, and it's great to watch them play. That's why people love it. As for here? I don't know. I haven't tried looking into sports."

Edited 2019-11-11 18:06 (UTC)

"Sure," Tidus submits to, in regards to fighting not being the point. Slipped in before his conversation partner carries on, because hey, Tidus figured it wasn't the point. It certainly got more exciting to picture though, to him.

He’s surprised however, to find the guy doesn’t know any sports here. Sure, he didn’t seem that much of a sports enthusiast in the first place, but considering where they were...

"Really? What’s got you so busy here?”

Not even one sports game, David??

What's got him so busy? David laughs and shakes his head. That should be obvious, but the guy's clearly new. This place isn't exactly the safest, and this guy doesn't know what's going on. Doesn't know about killer robots that look like them. Doesn't know that this place is probably trying to kill them.

"I'm a medical professional. It eats up a lot of my time."

That and the attempts, and failures, to hack.

"Oh." Well—that shifts Tidus's disbelief to something more understandable. Actually: "That's cool. The medical part."

Respectable, even. Tidus can appreciate someone in the medical field. No wonder why he questioned about people drowning during blitzball (no, that's a normal concern).

"I hope you get more time to relax than this," Tidus jokes, gesturing a hand out at the establish, the whole speed friending game. "Not that I'm not having fun. I could do this more."

“Time to relax can be... fleeting,” David admits. Especially with all his underground efforts. “But things like this get me out of my room and out of the hospital. Knowing people is rewarding. It makes this place feel less lonely.”

And he really had felt lonely. That was just how this place was. The way the city shifted, the differences between people, how they came from different places? It could’ve isolating.

Tidus doesn't need to give his next decision much thought: just a second to consider the approach, then to remember the communication device in his trouser pocket. He slips it out, gives it a wave.

"These let you keep in contact, right? I haven't messed with it much, but you ever wanna do something or get take-out, you should let me know. I haven't got as much going on as a medic." He says it playfully, friendly. "And I don't have a career to jump into. ...but to be honest, I just wanna take it easy for a while."

He is going to live off that pocket money so hard.

David smirks. He almost wants to joke that it sounded like he was being hit on, but in a place like this he didn’t think there was any good reason to assume it was.

“Sounds fun. My name is David Alleyne. You’ll find me under ‘nottechsupport’.”

And it was truer now than when he got here.

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they show you how to swim

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want to start wrapping up? would love more in future! :)

Sounds good to me