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

[blitzcheer]

She's giving him some kind of goosebumps, a conflicting state of mind. Reminding him of their time spent in the Macalania Springs, while being here, in a fun park with its out of sync chorus of excitement bumbling bouncing around the walls. He doesn't know what to do with it, ends up going for a tip of the head and a glance her way.

"Do I only get to pick one?" He's going for play it cool, though his heart is doing ridiculous flips. Maybe she's just teasing him, and he's reading way, way too deeply into it. Or maybe she's serious, and—is that okay?

...is it?

His gaze wanders off towards nowhere, not shy, just—you know.

(Play it cool, Tidus, play it cool—)

[whereishe]

Her lips parted as if surprised, her cheeks tinting a light rosy hue. "No." Yuna knew that she'd give him everything if he asked for it. There wasn't anything holding them back anymore. Even if the space between them felt larger than Yuna liked.

She swam around him, taking his hand in hers and lacing their fingers together.

"I've wanted to swim with you like this again. You know, I started playing Blitzball. I've gotten very good." Not as good as him but maybe he could help her get better.

[blitzcheer]

It's nice, her touch, and his fingers press into hers—even as slippery as they are, as little as there is to press into. He dislikes the worry that beats in his chest at what she might say, but then she mentions Blitzball, and it's like being passed a save. A way out.

He really shouldn't take it. He should talk to her about this thing being danced around, but:

"Who's been teaching you Blitzball?" Faux-accusatory, as if: Who's been teaching you that isn't me? "Wakka? The other guys?"

The Besaid Aurochs?

[whereishe]

Yuna laughed and leaned back, floating at his sides while keeping their fingers laced together. "The Aurochs but I trained a lot by myself too." She might have gotten a little carried away.

There was a lot that Yuna wanted to talk to Tidus about. She wanted to know what would happen now that they were together again but she didn't want to push him. So much had changed for him, while Yuna has had time to adjust.

She couldn't bare it if he disappeared from her side again.

"We can train together too. Maybe another time?" So it'd just be the two of them.

i hope i pictured yuna's position right lol

[blitzcheer]

"We're going to need a good ball for it." As far as the ones he'd seen so far, there weren't any actual blitzballs for them to use. But maybe what was around would work. ...except for the giant beach balls. Those were far too floaty.

Something compels him however, watching her laze in the water that way, her back on the water. He moves only as much as he has to, slowly, reaching out with their hands not linked to do so by their fingers. Answering casually at the same time, "But sure. We can train together. You can show me what you can do."

His voice softens, despite the volume in his ears. He's by her head now, looking down on her; remembering something like this too in the Macalania Springs, or something close.

Maybe it's why he glances at her lips, before tugging his gaze to her eyes, pulling on a smile and pretending he didn't.

"Do you like it?"

You got it!

[whereishe]

She met his gaze as he spoke and smiled. They could find a ball or perhaps ask for one. She was about to tell him as much when Tidus moved, his face hovering close to hers.

Her cheeks warmed and she felt her breath catch in her throat.

What was she going to say?

"Do I like... it?" What was he asking her? "...yes." She liked it when he was this close. Wait- no. Blitzball. They were talking about Blitzball! "I-" Yuna cleared her throat. "I do like it. I've always loved watching but playing is a different kind of fun. It was a little unexpected."

Her face was as red as a cherry tomato and like Tidus, she found herself pretending that she wasn't looking at his lips a moment before. It was harder when he began to speak.

[blitzcheer]

Their fingers can curl like this, and Tidus does it rather accidentally: trying not to read too into anything, but bracing himself anyway. He can't keep his gaze on her eyes, so he looks elsewhere, like at all the water around them, the side of her face. But he still pays attention, humming in acknowledgement first.

"Everything's always moving. You have to follow the game and where you are, work with the water and against it... there's no downtime until half-time, and even then, you've still got your mind on the game. Thinking about that big win..."

It's been forever, but some things don't leave you: and the thrill of a Blitzball game could never leave him, he's sure. Not completely.

"They don't have Blitzball stadiums here," he remarks. "Can you believe it?"

It should be unfathomable, another world or not.

[whereishe]

Her heart flipped, doing somersaults in her chest as his fingers curl protectively against her own. Tidus had been the only man to have this kind of effect on her and it seemed that time and distance hadn't changed that.

She smiled up at him and gently tugged him to float along side her in the pool. It wasn't something she'd be able to do with just anyone but only with someone as comfortable in the water as she was, someone like Tidus.

"No one I've talked to even know what Blitzball is. It's a little strange." It'd been a part of her life ever since she can remember.

"The city is so big. Sometimes it feels like it's moving around on me too."

[blitzcheer]

"We're gonna get knocked into."

It's a warning—or really, a joke, a tease—that even Tidus doesn't take seriously when he slips it out, getting her gesture and going for it anyway, because what does he care for anyone else here? What anyone might think, seeing them. Let them stare or question. The water is nice, and so is his company.

He has to let go of their hands that become the furthest, but his side slips closed to hers, so it's not too much of a loss.

"I think that's a thing." The moving landscape, that is. "There's some buildings too... nothing fits, but they reminded me of Zanarkand a little. They have the roofs at the top that curve in. I tried looking for them again yesterday, but they were gone."

But maybe it was just...nostalgia. Maybe even now, he's remembering it wrong.

"We should probably speak to more of the people here," he reasons. "Find out who's been around and can tell us anything we should know. You know...about this place."

Because the ones who brought them here have been upfront about being creepy, but it doesn't make them any more trustworthy to Tidus.

[whereishe]

Yuna laughed as she floated lazily in the water at Tidus's side. The currents of the pools surface rippled across her stomach, chest and thighs as Tidus released her hand and took his place beside her.

Her hair fanned around her head like a halo with her long braid sinking below her. "Do they? They're so tall. I guess, it is similar." She thought back to the image that Seymour had showed them in Guadosalam. The buildings had towered over them as lights and noise filled the shell of her ears. It'd been amazing though it would have been more amazing to see Tidus's Zanarkand, with him.

She closed her eyes and pushed the memory of the unpleasant blue haired man away.

"Mission accepted." Yuna laughed. "We'll both talk with people and meet up and share what we've found. I've already been shopping but it's very different here. Even the clothes. I wonder where everything in the city comes from. I didn't see any farms."

It was all very strange.

[blitzcheer]

"You looked?" He'd seen something of a map of the city, but Tidus hadn't thought about farms or anything farther out. Then again, he never thought about it with Zanarkand: the city had everything, so you didn't question the beyond.

It makes him think about it, but only briefly. There's no way this was like Zanarkand.

"There's that cure, or disease they brought us here too. Didn't they say they need us to fix the original people from here? But they left ages ago. What's going on there?"

Was there meant to be a whole civilisation just waiting around to return? It didn't really feel like it. It was all—off. Strange.

/end

[whereishe]

"Not very hard." She admitted with a sheepish sort of expression. It was one of those things that she'd tried to look into but hadn't gotten very far. It felt like the city was changing subtly or maybe it was just her imagination.

"That's right. Let's see what we can find. We can meet..." She thought for a moment. "At the park. We'll share what we've learned then."

Mission Time~!