they show you how to swim

[headandhand]

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!

Comments

[wickedprayers]

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.

[whosthemonsternow]

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.

[wickedprayers]

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."

[whosthemonsternow]

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.