Baby lately the plans we're making

[headandhand]

WHO: Open to all Dualizens
WHAT: Your regularly scheduled NAPs event for the month
WHERE: Our Crazy Jane's Gallows!
WHEN: January 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 just fine! But for the rest of you, the Head knows this is gonna 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 (possibly invasive) personal questions and receive results - or ignore the card and yeet yourself straight into a brand new friendship, whatever works! 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?!

Upon arrival, most will be ushered in by the Admins into the Gallery. Just ignore that large painting on the graffiti wall. Once inside you can begin to mingle and meet your fellow Dualizens, the city has also provided box wine, crackers and cheese as refreshments, a lovely Charcuterie spread laid out for any to sample while looking at the art and mingling.

This month there are two other lovely items for your amusement or horror! First off is a Karaoke machine, how the hell did they pull off getting every song you can think of with lyrics to all? Though, nearly every foul word is replaced with the sound a goose honking, have fun with that! Also, along with your normal note cards of questions you will find blank paper and kiddie packs of crayons. Make some art and leave it behind or leave it for your new friend!

Comments

Jane!

[notalive]

He's been looking out for Jane from the minute he realised where they were, exactly because he didn't think she consented to this in the slightest.

So when he hears the first scream, he makes an immediate beeline towards it, weaving through throngs of people to find the source of the scream.

...Which has stopped by the time he gets there, leaving only Jane, acting for all the world like she didn't just possibly tear her throat screaming so hard.

"I thought you'd be hard to find," he says as he reaches her. "But you made it pretty easy."

[fuckregularpeople]

Connor knows her well, clearly. If they ever figure out who sets up NAPs, pity that poor fucker because Jane is going to torture them to death slowly. Which is a nice image that's helping her last through this nightmare.

Jane glances from him around the small gallery. "Yeah, I thought about sending up a flare." Still a possibility, if some people in her head get sufficiently riled.

"What do you think they'd do if I locked everyone in and went home?"

[notalive]

Sending it up or sending it horizontally to hit anybody not fast enough to get out of the way? He doesn't ask - he might give her ideas.

"They wanted people to come and socialise, you're just helping the process." ...Then he adds, "Just don't set fire to anything before you lock the doors."

Another idea he was a bit reluctant to put out into the world.

"Did they tell you this was going to be happening?" he asks a bit more seriously. "Did you even have time to hide anything?"

[fuckregularpeople]

Oh no, that's a wonderful idea and Jane's face brightens momentarily as she considers it. She couldn't do it with people around, obviously, and the gallery has a large glass window which could make an easy escape route, but there's something to that. Admins trapped in a building burning would be just fine by Jane.

"They didn't tell me shit," she growls, low. "They know I hate them. Why would they give me time to do anything?"

[notalive]

He grimaces - of course they didn't show any basic consideration for Jane. Not even because she hates them, just because basic consideration for anybody in the city is beyond those who run it. Especially the ones who are going to die and not care anymore within a few months.

"What's her name?" he asks, suddenly realising that though he knows that Jane's alter painted these, he doesn't know who. "The one who painted all these."

[fuckregularpeople]

Thus no basic consideration. Why would the Head change its own habits to maintain its citizens' comfort when it could change the citizens instead?

"Why do you care?" she spits, not at Connor so much as the situation: the last thing she wanted to do was give away any personal information in front of an Admin. Jane has more hate for them than she does for even the Iterations. Iterations are mindless and formidable enemies, but with the Admins, it's fucking personal. "Does it matter?"

[notalive]

"It matters to me," he says simply. "We've all invaded her privacy, the least I can do is ask her name."

He doesn't want to look at the pictures, but he's an android: it's hard not to see them and process them, even out of the corner of his eye. And leaving means he misses seeing the new faces, committing them to memory and knowing who he can even tentatively consider trusting in the future.

"You don't have to, though," he adds. "I guess it's the one private thing she's got left at this point."

Art is a person recreating what's already inside themselves, after all. So he understands.