well, i know i had it coming …

[headandhand]

WHO: Open to all Dualizens
WHAT: Your regularly scheduled NAPs event for the month
WHERE: Dualis Danger Lock
WHEN: Feb. 10-13
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?!

And who doesn’t like meeting friends in a cramped, high-stress environment? That’s how some of the best friendships are forged - under pressure. Like diamonds! Luckily, for this month, NAPs provides just such an ideal friendmaking environment, courtesy of the brand-new escape room mega-complex, Dualis Danger Lock! This establishment boasts six different highly challenging escape rooms, all designed for small teams of two to three apiece. Usually, the six rooms offer six different themes - jewel heists, high-stakes espionage, and so on - but this month, each escape room differs only in the layouts and clues, because the themes are all the same.

That’s right - you’re attempting to escape from prison. Good luck with that!

After you’ve bonded with your new friends over sharing your skills at puzzle-solving and exited your escape room of choice, grab a table at the food court for snacks and mildly invasive personal questions, or blow off some steam at the arcade. Or, if you have high-pressure steam that needs to be let off, treat yourself to an adult beverage at the Danger Key bar.

Enjoy your freedoms, Dualizens! Enjoy them while they last ...

Comments

[ichoosefight]

Yeah, that... sounds like some crazy talk right there. Whatever. She'll let it slide. Instead she gets to her feet and scans the street.

"Wait here just a minute."

She spots what she's looking for and crosses the street into an alley next to an apartment complex. More or less out of view she parkours her way up to the first level of the fire escape and lowers the ladder before heading back to Zack's side.

"Follow me."

[legacy_blade]

He'd been watching her move, and frowned when she disappeared into the alley, but soon he was moving to follow her. And when he saw the lowered ladder he stares in shock.

"Did you do that?"

He does, of course, climb the ladder at her guidance.

[ichoosefight]

"A magician never reveals her secrets," she informs him as she makes her way up, definitely not trespassing or breaking any unspoken rules. It's a good few stories up to the top floor, which naturally doesn't extend to the roof. There's a lower roof right next to it, though, requiring only a few feet of shuffling across two inch detailing before she can hop up onto it. She turns back to offer him a hand if he needs it.

[legacy_blade]

"Okay, you're fucking cool."

He had been following her rather quickly. While he locks a lot of Steph's nimbleness and her specific sorts of training, he's definitely got speed just from pure strength and chemical enhancements. But once he sees her move over that two inches, well... Wow. WOW.

Good thing he isn't overly proud. When Steph offers a hand he ABSOLUTELY accepts it. And once they're on the other roof he grins.

"Wow, you remind me of that weird dude. The one who does the climbing stuff. Can't remember his name."

[ichoosefight]

She just laughs, revelling a little in the praise. She shouldn't be making herself conspicuous, but it's hard to care in an alternate universe where secret identities don't really matter.

"I'm gonna take that as a compliment," she decides, and turns to look out at the city below them.

"I always liked heights. It's much harder for an enemy to climb up than it is for you to fall down. You know?"

[legacy_blade]

"You should. His weirdness doesn't make you any less amazing," he laughs. Heights, though, he doesn't know how to explain. But he agrees at the whole concept. The beauty of the being up high. He pulls his knees up to his chest as he stares out at the night.

"Like I said, I worked in a tall building, on the 49th floor mainly. But it was, like, way taller than that. Not that I care. I... miss small places I guess. I told you I'm from a small village, right? I like being out in places like that. Except mountains. I don't miss mountains."

[ichoosefight]

"Small places, huh? Can't say I'm really a fan." She settles on the ledge and swings her legs over, leaning out into the open air.

"There's nothing like the open sky for freedom."

[legacy_blade]

Open skies. Zack frowns and looks up at the sky.

"I... saw it for a few months, traveling away from the place where me and a friend were held captive for some years. Experimented on. Escaping was SO hard."

[ichoosefight]

"I wish I could show you. I got turned into a bird once, it was easily the best week of my life. Hawks and all."

[legacy_blade]

Bird? Wow, Zack stares at her in shock. And maybe a touch of envy.

"So much better than getting turned into a frog. Or stone."

A bird is freer than that. Man, he wished he could be a bird.

[ichoosefight]

She snorts at that thought.

"And I thought falling out of the sky was bad. Being a frog is a good way to get squished."

[legacy_blade]

"You're not wrong. And there were a lot of things in the area that ate frogs, where I was growing up," Zack admits, chuckling. This... this is easier. She's helping. More than he'd expected.

"It's not easy to be here, in this place. The world is so familiar but so much worse. And I don't get to go home. So I have to make the best of the life they've given me."