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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So. South has been having a pretty good day up until now. She's been kicking back, relaxing and drinking, only lightly picking on people and in a more playful than mean way. She has guard duty in a bit with the Mayor, so she's sobering up with some high-caffeine coffee, but she's still in an absolutely wonderful mood.

However, as she's roaming around to help with the whole not-going-to-work-drunk situation, she spots something that's both entirely new and unfamiliar, yet with a hint of enough familiarity that she has to stop in her tracks. Well not something, exactly, it's technically a someone.

The guy doesn't really look like a Covvie in any real way, honestly, but he's definitely not human and especially "mammal-humanoid enough" for her to look past anything alien. She has improved a hell of a lot with her opinion on non-human beings or aliens around, she's really not bias or racist against them anymore. There was even that, like, minotaur bullhorned guy she just met who she has zero problem with being non-human. But the skin's reptile-ish looking texture and the colors, they cause an immediate and involuntary flash of disdain, even surge of rage, at the idea of her world's enemies being here in any sense.

But he's not a Covvie, she explains to herself, he's just some greenish dude sipping what's probably tea, chilling out. Not part of the bastards trying to rip apart humanity planet by planet. Calm the fuck down. Chill the hell out. Take a breath and, maybe, possibly, at least somewhat consider not staring as long as you have been already. Look away bitch, at least blink or stop narrowing your eyes, Christ girl.

Unfortunately for South, Thane's so in tune with his surroundings that he's made aware of the moment someone begins staring. Granted, he's used to the looks here and there from both back home and his time here in Dualis. They bother him little, if at all. What matters the most to him is if said staring will lead to some kind of confrontation, but he can of course tell that that doesn't seem to be the case in this instance. If it is, it's a poor choice to stare so openly.

He doesn't appear to be aware of the eyes on him as he calmly sips his tea, at least not until he finally lifts his blackened gaze to meet the woman's — both sets of lids blinking vertically and horizontally in mild curiosity.

"Would you care to have a seat," he offers, one hand leaving his cup to gesture to the chair across from him. Not only is he used to being stared at but he has learned to discern certain types of stares, and that's one he recognizes all too well. Usually simply being polite is enough to quell whatever concerns the other party has.

When his gaze lifts, South's eyes narrow just a hair more, chin lifting up in what could be acknowledgement or challenge or even defiance. Her fingers are still tight on her coffee cup, shoulders a tense, holding his gaze steadily for the moment.

She takes a deep breath through her nose when he speaks, jaw flexing just slightly in thought and consideration. He's not a Covvie, she keeps repeating to herself over and over and over- though it doesn't seem to be sinking in at all. She finally grows too pissed off at herself for refusing to fucking chill, irritated as she decides, alright, fuck it, she will hit this head-on and force herself to get the fuck over it. By eventually nodding and reluctantly moving to the offered seat.

Even as she sits, she doesn't speak up just yet, unusually silent as she focuses on making her shoulders lower to a more normal position. See. Totally comfortable. Entirely fine.

Tempting as it may be, pointing out the obvious trouble she's having dealing with this (Thane can only assume it's everything to do with him being an alien) will obviously only make things worse, so he settles for continuing to sit calmly as he sips his tea. She might get defensive and agitated otherwise...more so than she already appears to be. Ready for a fight, perhaps? That kind of disdain and distrust usually came from somewhere, not just a matter of hating something different. A bad experience with non-humans, maybe.

Speculation aside, he's not surprised when she takes a seat and doesn't speak. But taking a seat at all seems like a big enough step in of itself, judging by her tense reactions. For now, he will play completely oblivious to her conflict. Sure, relaxed. She's completely relaxed. Clearly.

"I have seen many things, but these 'water parks' were never one of them," he comments casually. Not at all aware of her struggle. Nope. It's not wholly obvious to him at all. Just making conversation here.

While she is almost entirely sure she’s not actually hiding her tornado of emotions and thoughts well if at all, she sure as hell isnt going look closely to see if he’s noticing them. If he’s not commenting or making it obvious, she’s not going to push it.

Rather, she’s just going to focus on the fact that he’s talking nice and civilized towards her. See, dummy, how many Covvies have you ever heard about doibg anything like that?! Literally none ever in the history of time.

The initial response of otherworldly rage slowly starts to seep away and her regular, normal asshole self settles back in. There’s still plenty of tension in her, but she manages a faint huff as she rests her elbows more casually on the table. She gives him a considering look, hands loosening their unnecessarily tight grip against the poor coffee cup before she shrugs.

“It’s not even an impressive one, really.” South finally replies, as if she hasn’t been over every inch of it the whole fucking day like an excited kid on speed.

Even the slightest bit of release in tension is a victory. He's glad to see the coffee mug may not shatter in her grip after all. The last thing anyone needs is to be scolded or have a stray ceramic piece flying at their face.

"Indeed?" It's very big. Those slides twisting and turning every which way with inflatable rafts lazily floating under and around most of them...either these places tend to be huge and extravagant or her standards are especially high. "Then you've been to your fair share of them." If she has a metric by which to judge this Oasis, he assumes.

South even eventually puts down the poor cup down, her hands moving to lay her palms flat on the table as a couple of her fingers tap lightly. She's calming down, slowly, but the adrenaline still has her blood buzzing in her veins. She can't help fidgeting slightly, but at least her posture is loosening up and easing into something more casual.

"Back home, we have entire planets that are just for entertainment shit, like over-sized water parks." Entire cities that are basically just colossal sized parks? Yep, she's seen and visited them plenty of times.

Now, talking about home and the planets there could easily and quickly dive her back into an aggressive, defensive mode again. With how many places were destroyed or glassed by the Covvies, it could fan those dying flames or rage without an issue. Thankfully, her thoughts are more pulling up memories from family trips and goofy shore leaves instead.

Not having the benefit of knowing who he's talking to means he has to be even more careful than usual. He knows more than anyone that even the most seemingly innocuous subject can be a sore spot, and seeing as how he was already on the outs coming into this conversation he has to be especially attentive. While she doesn't appear to be completely calm those small adjustments to her posture prove promising. Now, he's never been great at small talk, but he's putting those skills learned from Shepard to work.

"Sounds...fun." Not for him, specifically, but for people who enjoy that sort of thing. "Seems like it would take a very long time to explore such a place."

She considers his reply for a long moment, longer than necessary, but she's carefully thinking over her response. There's plenty of ways she can go with it, but she's not sure if she wants to get that chatty with him, especially given her initial reaction. Plus, there's a ton of things she hasn't spoken to anyone about, snippets of her childhood being a major one.

Still. After her extended pause, she decides one short, tiny memory can't hurt too much...

"It was pretty fun as kids." South starts, studying her hands with a touch of hesitation before she leans back in the chair, letting her arms cross over her stomach as she continues, "It'd take forever to hit all the rides. My...parents would take us on weekend long trips, we'd compete and argue over who could get the most rides in before it was time to leave. I'd usually win- but the damn place was so huge, we'd still have a few we didn't have time for."

She doesn't specify who the other part of "we" and "us" was, she leaves it vague, but she does manage the faint touch of a smile at the memory.

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they show you how to swim

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