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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It's a cultural think, Zack. Don't knock it. He narrows his eyes slightly at the question, arching an eyebrow. Zack is now the only person present who's asked him that question and he's not sure how he feels about it.

"What's chess?" He shakes his head, deciding ultimately to leave it at that. It's not actually unheard of for there to be monsters outside of villages in Loki's experience, so he doesn't really think anything of it. Keeping them at bay was actually one of the was Asgard safeguarded the Nine Realms, after all. "Hide and Seek was close second, depending on play-fellows. There are a number of places to hide in a palace, after all."

What, he isn't knocking it. He just didn't know much of what to say about this 'chess' thing. But he's curious, and nods when Loki repeats the question. But... nothing comes from it. That's rude, man. Be nice.

But even that is lost with the other statement.

"Palace? Wow, we haven't had palaces in, like, SO long. I wouldn't even know what to think of one other than in stories. With all the towers and colored shingles and draw bridges."

He grins at Loki, because he's so going to ask lots about the palace.

"Are you royal or something? Like, should I call you 'Your Highness?'"

"Ours has quite a bit of gold, tapestries, murals, statuary, gardens, grottos." When he describes them he sounds almost sad, taking another sip from his drink before setting it down gently. "Had, rather. It was destroyed recently."

He laughs at the assessment, though puffs up a bit at the assumption. Why yes, Zack. He is a royal. He's glad that translates.

"I am. Prince Loki of Asgard," he inclines his head, "A pleasure, though 'Loki' will do just fine."

Grottos? What in the world are those? Nope, not going to ask, because the guy looks sad and Zack? Surprisingly, he's actually good at reading that and respecting the sad. Usually by going on with joy rather than pressing. Even if he wants to know how a palace got destroyed.

"Well a serious pleasure, Prince Loki. Loki. I'm Zack Fair, out of Gongaga."

He's not so sad about the palace so much as the entire planet, Zack, but that's a very long story and one he'd rather not recount. Plus, even if it were still standing, he'll never see it again.

"Gongaga." He found he enjoyed the name of the place. It played on the tongue, and he found himself wondering what such a place was like. He used to visit places for similar reasons when he was younger: just to see what they were. "And what is Gongaga like?"

Well, Zack doesn't know about the whole planet.

"Well, we were a tiny ass village in the middle of a deep forest. There wasn't much there other than a natural mako fountain, which meant ShinRa made a mako reactor. Really, it was just home. Nothing more complicated than that."

'Just home', he said, and so casually. Recent memories of Loki's own home were clouded by hatred and perceived loathing, inadequacy and pain. There had been a time, very recently even, that he'd wanted nothing more than to watch Asgard burn, and now that he had? Well...that was complicated.

"It sounds...quaint. Though you say 'was'. Does it not still stand?"

"Very quaint. Which was part of the charm. And it still stands, so far as I know. It's just that I don't."

Zack's had a bit of time to come to terms with being dead back home. Really, it wasn't that hard to adjust. In his world death just meant a new part of the cycle of life.

His eyebrows rose at the news, and there was a flicker of empathy that crossed his face before it was replaced with a smile. "Ah. Yes, that would hamper things, wouldn't it?"

It had for him, after all. After so long, he'd started to feel welcome among the Asgardians, one of them, and then? Then his own decisions had caught up with him.

"Yeah, but it's okay. I'm hoping to come back as a really awesome tree. Maybe mistletoe? So people will kiss under my leaves," Zack grins. Because in his world, life truly does cycle and reincarnate. And he just wants to be something pretty and responsible for good in the world.

"You could be reincarnated as literally anything and you choose a shrubbery." That told him more about Zack than anything else had so far. That he was simple and lacked ambition.

Yeah, why not? It was a shrubbery that could protect itself too, because of how sharp the leaves could be.

"What's wrong with that? Sorta owed some rest and relaxation after all I've been through. Can't hurt someone as a shrub. And kissing under the mistletoe has brought couples together. I could help create love."

Who needed ambition when you just cared about other people being happy? He'd had enough of ambition.

"You would be incapable of caring whether or not your existence created a bond between them."

That sounds like a disgusting way to dedicate your life, but Loki supposes it takes all kinds.

"So?" Zack asks. "The life cycle of the Lifestream is absolute. Everyone is everything and everything is everyone."

Because of course they are. What else would they be?

"Is it now? Then I suppose it doesn't really matter how you're reincarnated, does it?" He smiles. Alright, clever boy. Loki could play along.

"Perhaps. But that doesn't mean I'm not happy at the idea of something over another thing. So, if you could be reincarnated into any living thing, what would it be?"

Zack feels like it's a good question.

"I'd rather not be reincarnated at all, personally." His destination was an afterlife, at least he hoped. "When an Asgardian dies in glory, he his destined for Valhalla, where he will dine and drink with his ancestors for all eternity. I'll forego living again, thank you."

"Yea, but the question is what you would be if you HAD to be. What you'd want to choose. Though that Valhalla sounds really AWESOME. Exdcept I don't like drinking much."

But he doesn't really drink, so that's not as entertaining. But a long party, and getting to know people from the past? It's interesting.

"Isn't the point of reincarnation that one doesn't get to choose?"

It was possible a diversion. He has no idea.

"Yes," Zack grumbles, rolling his eyes. Dude, you're not PLAYING ALONG. And Zack's not amused. Why are you killing the man? "But if you could choose, and it wasn't as a person, what would you choose."

Come on, play along here!

Why play along when watching him squirm is so much more entertaining? That bell is going to ring soon, though, and that would ruin everything, so he eventually complies.

"A snake, venomous, black."

The squirm wouldn't have lasted much longer. But this? this isn't bad. Because even with that decision, he laughs.

"Wow, pretty defensive sort of choice."

"I would have gone with evasive but it's really here no there." At the close of his response, the bell tolls and he glances up in that direction. "And it would seem our time together is at an end. It was a pleasure, Zack."

"It was. We should talk again," Zack answers, offering a brief smile. Yeah, he was absolutely annoyed not that long before, but now he's cheerful and happy again. How easy it is for him, to just accept the world and move on.

Sometimes.

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they show you how to swim

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