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

[ food hoarders anonymous ; closed to drifter ]

Floor six... All the way at the top. Figures. The whole thumbprint thing is like something out of a futuristic movie, but then, this entire city seems to be that way. It'd be overwhelming if Kyoko wasn't used to dealing with witch labyrinths.

Honestly, though, that's kind of how this entire thing feels like. It's like she just contracted and isn't used to fighting witches yet, and she got pulled through a barrier she didn't see coming. Disorienting, beyond unexpected... But at least in a situation like that, she knew what to do. It was simple: fight to survive. This...?

Kyoko stands in the doorway and stares into the dorm room. She's not sure what she was expecting, but after the searing neon lights and high tech and glimpses of magic she's seen on her way here? It's so bland and normal that she finds herself laughing, to her surprise.

"Are you kidding me?" she says aloud, shaking her head as she steps past the threshold.

[ NAPs ; lounge ; OTA ]

It feels weird to go to a party after everything that's happened.

Kyoko can't exactly say she's ever been to one at all, let alone specifically a pool party. The required swimwear thing is weird and annoying, but Kyoko isn't sure she wants to go to the water park anyway. It's one thing to play at an arcade by herself, but things like this are meant to be enjoyed with other people, and she's not really in the mood to play with strangers. What's the point of going to the pool if you aren't gonna annoy your friends by splashing around?

(... she doesn't want to think about this too much.)

It's better to spend her money on food, anyway, instead of a swimsuit she'd probably only wear the once. It's money she doesn't have to work for, and money she'll get more of next month, but that doesn't mean she's willing to waste it. Even if it means she has to play along with this whole "friend speed-dating" thing.

At least it's easy to come up with her own question, so she doesn't have to rely on the stupid cards.

"Hey, you've ordered something, right? Had anything good?" Kyoko is perched on an armchair, one knee drawn up. There are a couple of plates stacked up on one of the armrests, both empty except for crumbs. After asking her question, she takes a large bite from the pastry she bought. (It looks fancy enough it probably deserves to be treated better. It also looks more expensive than it actually was.) She's wearing jean shorts and a green hoodie, and given that she's bone dry, it's pretty evident that she hasn't been to the pool.

Edited 2019-11-11 08:05 (UTC)

Drifter doesn't actually stay in his room that often. He's a busy man, doing busy things. He runs a carnival game in this indoor sort of funfair place. But that's part time. The rest of the time he's doing the oh so wholesome activity of gun-running.

But the room? The room is actually the best he's seen in a long time. And this is a rare day in which he's actually decided to stay in it. Since his roommate left, it's not like anyone would complain if he did a little work.

What he doesn't expect is a young girl to come in. Slight of build but making up for it in girth of sound. He's sitting cross-legged on the bed, a mechanical device settled in his lap, screwdriver in his hand, and surrounded by candy wrappers and half-eaten bags of chips and even a few varieties of soda he's been digging at.

He gestures to the empty side of the room.

"Better than nothin'. Settle in. You the poor kid they saddled with me?"

And there's her roommate. Kyoko looks the guy over, eyes lingering on the mess around him, standing with her weight on one leg and her hand on her hip.

"Guess so." She tilts her head, then looks away from him to gaze around the room. There's a cell phone of some sort sitting on what's apparently her bed. She crosses over to it, plucks up the phone, and drops herself down where it was. "And here I was kind of hoping they'd set us up somewhere fancier, after pulling us here without even asking." She gestures loosely with the phone as she talks, but stops and points with it at the guy.

"So. Who're you?"

"You can call me Drifter."

He says that as if it should be as much a name as anything. Names, hah. They're only useful if you wanna look normal. And sure, withholding a name or putting out a persona sort of makes you stand out, but Drifter does wanna stand out to the right people, and seem impersonal to the ones he doesn't much care to bother with right now.

"You got a name or do I call ya 'Roomie'?"

Kyoko has a feeling he might call her "roomie" anyway. That's the kind of vibe she's getting right now.

"It's Kyoko." She stopped giving her family name a while ago. It's not like it mattered much, and it definitely doesn't matter here. "How long have you been here?" She glances again, this time more pointedly, at the food littering his bed. He looks pretty settled in from where she's at.

Much to Kyoko's vast misfortune, she will absolutely end up 'Roomie' sometimes.

"Couple of months, give or take." So he's not terribly settled, but he's settled enough to stockpile some food into some easy to grab bags near the closet. You know. In case he has to run.

He notes, though, that this kid is pretty young, and for all that he's been sitting here looking casual, he's hoping to god those robot doubles don't show up to give her a hard time.

She considers asking him what he thinks of this entire thing. The city, the AI, the reason why they've been brought here. But his opinion would be useless until she gets a feel for the kind of person he is.

Instead, after a beat, she cocks her head and grins. "So what's good to eat around here?"

"Depends on how picky you are." He looks around him on the bed, at the skeletal remains of a snack food slaughter. "I'm not real discriminatin'."

He was willing to eat dead aliens, for one thing. Most of the time he had the means to cook it at least. Sometimes he even took a risk and tried his hand at the poisonous ones, just to see how that mess turned out.

"If you're open to anything, then it's all pretty good."

"Come on, that's a cop out answer. Even if you're open to anything, some things are better than others. I can't say I'm picky, either, but I've gotta have somewhere to start."

Not that it'd be hard. She'd start at the closest places. But this might give her ideas of where to start exploring the city elsewhere. This place is big. Not that she hasn't been to a new city before, so she can manage on her own, but normally, she starts by checking out the magic scene. And while she's definitely felt magic, she hasn't noticed any trace of witches or familiars. She's not sure whether that's surprising. She'll go looking in detail later, maybe even tonight, but...

Edited (fixed the train of thought that fell off) 2019-11-12 11:08 (UTC)

"Cop out! Oh come on. I've eaten the alien version of half-cooked roadkill out of desperation before. This bag of nachos is like heaven to me, sister!"

He gestures over his shoulder at his stash by his closet.

"Buf it you wanna dig around and try some of the snack foods, have at it. All I ask is that you replace 'em 'cause uh... never know when you might be needin' a bug-out bag, you dig?"

And there are a lot of human types of food in there, but also strange future ones. Fried crickets. Something called 'snoobloo gummies'. Cans of 'artificially grown meat product'. He'd have soylent green without protest if they sold it by the CalorieMates. Of which he also has plenty over there.

Edited 2019-11-12 11:37 (UTC)

Well, so much for the lazy exploration starter point idea. But Kyoko isn't bothered, because what he said is interesting enough she's willing to let it go.

(It feels weird to be called "sister." But she doesn't want to look that in the face right now.)

She takes his invitation immediately, getting to her feet and going over to rifle through his stuff with no hesitation or self-consciousness. Some of the food looks recognizable. Some of it, she's not even sure where to start guessing.

"What would we run from? Not that I'm against the idea, but it's not like we're staying here illegaly. Our fingerprints open the door." She pulls out a distinctly familiar looking can of chips. "Which, I don't exactly remember sharing." One more thing that's fishy about this place.

"Yeah, well... Not too long ago there was a break-in, and someone apparently tried to send body doubles of us after us during a big black-out. Don't know what caused it. But I'm pretty sure we shouldn't have body doubles? You know. Call it a hunch."

He picks up the thing he's working on and waggles it for her to see.

"Motion detector."

He goes back to work on it, picking up a screwdriver and picking away at it. "Lots I don't get about this place. I hear it makes people weaker, too."

Edited 2019-11-12 12:15 (UTC)

Kyoko stops and stares. "Body doubles? What, like... Actors? Clones? Aliens? Robots?" A beat. "Magic?"

No, wait. Maybe that isn't what she should be focusing on. "And no one knows who made them?"

She rubs the side of her head. "This place gets more and more sci-fi movie at every turn..."

"Clones and robots at least. Mighta been a little bitta magic. Who knows. Didn't get more info than that 'cause we apparently ain't supposed to be talkin' about it on the network or somethin'. Sure as shit didn't make the news."

Drifter talks like this might be a normal thing for him, if not here. And he's irritated by it, but no more than mildly inconvenienced.

"Just if you see someone that looks like you you might wanna beat the hell outa them. I mean, they could be just a lookalike but you can't be too careful."

Oh, right, he's talking to a teenage girl. He should check.

"...You're good with beatin' the hell outa people, right? Just makin' sure you can properly defend yourself."

The way he talks about it like it's normal somehow almost makes Kyoko want to overlook it. But clones? Coming after them? Trying to kill them?

At least he's giving decent advice about it.

Kyoko can't help but grin, and it isn't the kind of grin that a normal teenager would -- or should -- probably have. "I can take care of myself, no problem. If anybody tries to mess with me?" She clenches one hand into a fist and plants it into her other palm with a light smack. "They're gonna regret it."

Edited 2019-11-18 12:04 (UTC)

There is a bizarre, unnerving sense of casualness from a man that endeavors to always have an escape plan. The window locks are taped up so no one can lock them in, there's that bag ready, and Drifter's already found a few hidey holes he can lay low in while he figures out what to do.

He looks her over, knowing he can't judge from size and build. He's seen Titans her size, after all. But he gestures loosely.

"Better get you a baseball bat or somethin'. Helps if you got a weapon." And Drifter only keeps his pistol in his room, so he can't offer her a loaner.

Kyoko considers telling him there's no point. She could prove it, too, easily. But the memory of her Soul Gem, shining bright and clear in her hand... She checked it after she woke up on that stone slab. She had to. Her Soul Gem was tainted when she opened Sayaka's barrier, after spending all night keeping her body fresh. It's why she was almost out of magic by the end.

More than simply being alive, that's what's bothers her the most, she thinks. Even if she can't explain why.

"I'll figure somethin' out." Kyoko lowers her flat hand and opens and closes her fist, still holding it up. Better not to tell him about what she is. This place is crazy, and too hard to predict. That has to go for the people here, too. She doesn't know if she can trust him yet. No way of telling what he'd do if he found out.

She picks up the can of chips and walks back over to her bed, flopping down onto it, even kicking her feet up, despite still having her boots on. "So, why aren't we supposed to talk about body doubles on this 'network'? What's the deal with that?"

Edited (tenses are mine enemy) 2019-11-18 13:46 (UTC)

"Just your average 'censorship' and 'always under observation' situation." Drifter waves his hand. "Hell, been a long time since I been under one of those. I'm from one of those, 'to each his own if you can survive' scenarios. But, I'll adjust to survivin' here, too."

As far as he knows he'll survive anything anyway.

"They got robots here, iterations. Robots that don't think like people, not like the ones I'm used to. And these mean fellas will shock the hell out of you if they take a notion."

This really is like something out of a sci-fi movie. Maybe even a horror one. It's gonna be a pain to be 'always under observation.' She's just glad she found out about this before she's even looked at this network thing.

"What do these things look like? And what exactly pisses them off?" Kyoko crunches down on a potato chip. "I mean, when you say censorship, I'm guessing these iterations run around punishing people who say stuff they don't like or something, right?"

"They look like big robots. Tough ones, too. Back home we got some tough robots- they're called 'Exo's. Former warbots. But they're a hell of a lot more personable than these. They'll wander up to you and tell you to be quiet if you're indicatin' anything subversive. Shockin' the shit out of you if you look suspicious. That kinda thing."

Drifter taps his screwdriver against his head.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of raisin' hell. I'd just do it where I could get a runnin' start if I was you. You dig?"

Kyoko grins at that. "Yeah, yeah, I get it. I'm not an idiot." Dig, really?

She draws one knee up and props her other calf up on it. "So, what, you're telling me you're from some weird sci-fi movie place, too?" Her foot starts tapping idly. "It doesn't sound like this place surprised you much when you showed up." Not really. There's not enough information there one way or another, but he really doesn't seem phased by any of this. "Either that, or you're just handling it really well."

In terms of words that could come out of Drifter's mouth, in all honesty that was low grade on the bizarreness charts.

But then there's that comment about how odd things are. Well, most of the building seemed to accept it by now. Maybe not accept, but have worked out how to deal with it.

"There comes a point in a lifetime worth of surprises that you just get wore out bein' surprised all the time." He thinks of the last time he really panicked when he was surprised. Waking up, dressed in nice clothes, laid to rest like someone at one time gave a shit about him. Somebody he'd been dead too long to bother finding again.

He thinks of the Ghost talking to him, telling him he needed to run. Telling him that he was his Chosen. He'd gotten resurrected, killed, and brought back again in the span of thirty seconds because the first sight of the damn thing had startled him right into an oncoming enemy vehicle.

"I think I just ran out of surprise. Decided to focus my anger, too, narrow it down to a bullet or a blade rather than a big ol' short-lived bomb. Easier to carry that way, and less volatile. Just like a real weapon."

Kyoko finds herself... unsurprised (ha) that's how he decided to live. She's only met the guy, but... It fits. She can't say it's all that different from the way she's gone, but then, it wasn't an active choice for her. Stay mobile, not wanting to be tied down. Focus on what kept her alive, including avoiding self-destructing. It's what came naturally. It felt right. It was the only thing that felt right.

"I thought I ran out of surprise." Kyoko isn't eating right now. She's holding a chip between two fingers, but she's staring at some point on the wall. She's not sure when that changed. It wasn't something she'd been conscious of. If she had to guess... Probably around the time Madoka threw Sayaka's Soul Gem, and they found out what that meant. Her eyes slide to the silver ring on her finger, shifts her fingers to watch the light glint off of it.

"But it doesn't matter. It's not gonna make me go do something stupid." Probably.

"Everybody's capable of a stupid decision, no matter how old or well put together. It's up to you make the smart one that comes after that."

Whether that's running, or covering their ass, or waiting for their fall to take advantage of the mess. Be the second damn monkey.

"You're handlin' this pretty well too, though. Figure whatever surprises you had before, you musta had biggun's."

"Heh. I guess you could say that."

Definitely an understatement. But there's no chance she's going to go into any details. She gets the feeling he's not going to push for them, though. He hasn't exactly offered any of his own, and this kind of thing is tit for tat.

She crunches down on the chip she's been holding. "Hey, how common is it to find fruit here? I noticed all your stash is pre-packaged. Not that I'm complaining, don't get me wrong."

(no subject)

be_notorious - 2019-11-27 06:14 (UTC) - Expand

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

they show you how to swim

kyoko sakura | puella magi madoka magica | one closed, one ota

[ food hoarders anonymous ]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

(no subject)