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

[hellofishies]

"If you do, let me know! I can build things." And maybe she could build something like that. It's not her specialty but she would be willing to try. There's not much she's not willing to try though.

"That must have been incredible! You must be very experienced!" She claps her hands excitedly. "Did you finish your training?"

[aguidingkey]

That kind of sounds like a good side project here. For fun as well as possible irrigation. She'll have to think about it.

The questions are innocent enough, but still bring a sharp pain to her chest. She manages not to look completely downcast, though a bit of sorrow flashes behind her eyes anyway. "Yes, I did. But I think maybe I still have a lot to learn about the worlds and how to really help people. A lot of my experiences have... challenged a lot of what I was taught. So maybe I'm still not finished training, even if I passed my exam."

[hellofishies]

"Congratulations!" Arkady looks thoughtful for a second and then sympathetic as she catches a familiar flicker of sorrow behind Aqua's eyes. It's a flash she's all too familiar with herself, especially when it comes to trying to not look like how she's feeling on the inside.

"I think maybe we never really stop learning and training. There's always more," she offers a little smile with a touch of sadness. "And people change a lot. Sometimes they can't even be recognized anymore. So, maybe it's good you could still be training?"

[aguidingkey]

That is actually a very good way of looking at the situation. Aqua admits that she hadn't really thought of it in exactly those terms before. She had thought that she wasn't fit to be a Keyblade Master, and the voices in the Realm of Darkness had really preyed on that thought, but to think that she really isn't done learning and that no one ever really is just puts everything into perspective for her.

"I think you may be right," she admits softly. "I couldn't help my best friends when they needed me most. Maybe I really do still have things to learn and even once I learn enough to help them... there's still so much to any world that maybe I'll never quite finish learning everything. Maybe that's the point. Life is a journey, right? It's about living and training, not exactly the destination."

[hellofishies]

"You wanted to help them though, and that matters. Sometimes you just can't help people. Sometimes they have to help themselves first. And sometimes you just have to accept they can't be changed." There's a sadness to the statement. It's something she's quite familiar with herself, from both sides of the equation. Then there were times where a change had to be forced. Arkady chooses to leave that little bit out though. Better left unsaid.

She smiles though. "Right! Life's a journey and you never know what will happen. Unless you do know, then you just shouldn't tell. People frown on that."