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

[notspartacus]

Nida's question actually gets a slight chuckle from the typically serious android and he nods, motioning toward the paper and crayons. "Of course. They aren't mine. The city provided them, I think."

He nodded at Nida's explanation. He didn't speak from a position of experience, of course, but it made sense to him nonetheless. "People being forced to talk to each other tense?" He smirks slightly at that, an unspoken apology for the sarcasm. "I can see that."

[skyward_eyes]

Well then, Nida pulls paper close and takes a crayon out. And then produces a knife, to work the thing to as close to a point as he can. Something to give him something to work with. Clearly he's the sort of guy who knows a little about art. And within moments with the black crayon he's recreating the gallery they're in, from the angle they're at. Including impressionist versions of the art here.

"Of it's not just that. If you don't talk enough... the powers that be get annoyed. You don't want that. The shock isn't worth it. It's like we're rats in a maze to this place."

Better to get them disaffected quickly. On their guard. So that less people are replaced with robots.

[notspartacus]

That caught Markus' attention more than most other things the locals, or at least the older kidnapees, had told him. "What sort of shock?"

He hadn't been told they'd been tampered with before being reactivated, or awoken, here, but that must be what Nida was suggesting. He knew he couldn't ask too much here for fear of prying eyes or ears, but it was a simple enough question.

Even as he awaited an answer, he took note of Nida's skill with a simple crayon and felt a pang of sadness. Carl would have loved him.

[skyward_eyes]

Nida definitely takes another colored crayon, sharpening it. A dark gray, barely different from the black. And in the swells of back he draws out a bit of a pattern. A room number in the dorms. Interesting. And soon that is covered up by the black color again. A quiet offer to explain more later.

He's still working on the art of the room, adding Markus to it.

"An unpleasant kind, and sometimes people say stupid things."

[notspartacus]

Being an Android had its advantages and he documented the room number for reference later, nodding.

"Do you think it's more or less smart to say nothing at all?"

[skyward_eyes]

"I think it's more important to talk," Nida answers, but the way he looks up at Markus briefly.

Please, those eyes are saying, understand the double meaning. That one should talk, but not about anything of consequence.

"For instance, I feel that I should ask you what your favorite medium for creation is. You've got clear artistic talent. So you probably have a preference for how you create. I like pencils."

[notspartacus]

He did understand. He'd been an activist, on the run, hiding in plain sight enough to know when to be mum about anything of substance.

And he remembered how to act when under someone else's control.

He smiles, shrugging slightly. "My..." What was he supposed to call Carl? He'd been his friend, his father, his confidant...and his owner. "Mentor preferred acrylics, so that's what I have the most experience with. Carl Manfred, if you're...familiar? It's a pretty well known artist."

[skyward_eyes]

"Never heard of him," Nida admits easily as he sets his picture of the room aside and picks another piece of paper to start instead drawing a strange structure. "That isn't saying much though. I hear a lot of people that are here are from a place called Earth. I am not."

[notspartacus]

He'd heard that himself, but he didn't think he'd meet someone from another planet so soon after arriving. Interested, he leans forward, interested.

"You're not? Where are you from?"

[skyward_eyes]

"We call our world Hyne. It's a planet with monsters from the moon, magic, sorceresses, mercenaries, so many lovely things," Nida provides. Sooner or later the man will meet others from his world. "There are four of us here from there."

[notspartacus]

"A planet with monsters...from the moon?" That was a new one, and sounded more than a bit like a science fiction novel. "This place must not be too weird, then...for you, I mean."

[skyward_eyes]

"That is indeed an accurate description of Hyne."

He tilts his head thoughtfully at the idea that this place isn't very weird.

"I mean, I'm used to monsters being easy to tell by just looking at them. They tended to try and kill you immediately."

[notspartacus]

"There are monsters here you can't see?"

That was the implication, and Markus definitely took note of it.

[skyward_eyes]

All Nida can do is offer a brief nod. But there isn't as much he can explain about all of this. Not where they are. How they are.

"Maybe my sight isn't as good as I like it to be."

[notspartacus]

Markus nods after a moment, and meets Nida's eyes when he speaks. "Right. Muggers look like everyone else."

He hopes Nida understands that he's understood they were breaching a risky topic, before he changes it. "So, what was your favorite thing about Hyne?"

[skyward_eyes]

Smart man. Good man. Very useful. But he considers the question presented and tries not to flinch. Because Hyne was also their god, and wow that wasn't good or likeable.

"Well, I love the Garden, because I get to pilot it."

[notspartacus]

"I think you and I have different definitions of 'garden'." He smiles slightly at his own joke. "As far as I know, they don't have pilots."

[skyward_eyes]

Well he chuckles at that and nods. Another paper, this time a far rougher sketch.

"A mobile shelter converted into a training ground for orphans and interested youths, making them into mercenaries. Garden. Capital G."

[notspartacus]

He narrows his eyes at the sketch, shaking his head.

"They trained children for war?"

[skyward_eyes]

"They trained children to survive," Nida counters and he sighs. He's had to deal with telling this story too many times. And the way people react is always weird. "Makes sense in my world."

[notspartacus]

Marcus shakes his head. "No. I'm sorry, maybe I'm out of line, and I know it's how you were raised, but...raising child mercenaries is different from teaching them how to survive, whether or not your world is prone to conflict. They're taking the right to choose from you."

[skyward_eyes]

"We can choose not to enter into the SeeD program, to become mercenaries. I chose to," Nida dismisses. "I passed my exam. And I'm dangerous because of it."

[notspartacus]

"And was that your goal? To be dangerous?" It was concerning to say the least.

[skyward_eyes]

"I..."

That's hard to explain. Nida sighs. "My hometown was annexed by a hostile nation. So yes."