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]

[ Not even Tidus can miss the way the guy examines him, the uncertainty that shifts into something more wary. He's not sure how to take it: his own expression lingering more on a confusion where Tidus looks away for a second, then back—more out of uhh? than actual avoidance. ]

She mentioned you? [ And while people were naturally different, there sure were a difference between this guy and Tifa. Tidus points a thumb or finger somewhere in the direction of where the speed friending was/is taking place, his puzzled tone ceasing some. ] We were talking about our homes. She told me you race chocobos.

[bravers]

Yeah, once.

[That look of confusion would've been enough to make most people back off. But he's not like other people. He wants to ask the question again, to ask why Tifa told him those things; why she casually told him stuff about him, why she would tell a stranger about Nibelheim. But he doesn't. Most people would back off. But the next question, even though it's different, isn't backing off. Too-bright eyes stay just as firmly fixed on the taller man- his voice maintained at the same tone. Steady.]

...What'd she tell you about her home?

[blitzcheer]

[ From 4 to 8, that's what this feels like. Tidus watches Cloud without matching the seemingly fixed wary nature of the other guy's attention, the confusion not as in the forefront of Tidus's gaze, but not completely absent. Confusing, for sure. But it wasn't as if he couldn't tell this guy was ...guarded, to some degree.

Hadn't his clothing and the rest given some of that away in the first place? ]

You're her friend. From there?

[ It's a question to confirm than simple curiosity: a pause before he might continue, visible in the way Tidus regards Cloud.

Basically: Tell him this, and then get an actual answer to the question. ]

[bravers]

[To him, that's a strange question. It causes him to stop chewing on the strange foam for a moment, enough to make him level an odd look into Tidus' face before his gaze draws away. A half-covered hand rises to tuck some of his flattened, damp hair back under his hood.]

Yeah. We grew up together in Nibelheim. I left, and we met up again as adults.

[He's brisk with it. Surely Tifa wouldn't have told a complete stranger the whole story, right?]