dualislogs | 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

"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."

"Force of habit. You can get fruit- alien fruit, too. Where I'm from, you never know when you might run out. There were a few times I starved for a while." Starved to death, actual death, but this he doesn't say. "So I usually get the stuff that lasts for a while. But yeah, they got fresh stuff. I eat it too when I'm out."

There's nothing super personal in the statement concerning food. Just fact of the matter sentiment. Don't fucking starve.

they show you how to swim

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