dualislogs | kitty at my foot and i wanna touch it.

kitty at my foot and i wanna touch it.

WHO: Open to all residents
WHAT: Your regularly scheduled NAPs event for the month
WHERE: The RoCocoa Cat Cafe
WHEN: Aug. 10-14
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, 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?!

This month’s event is held at the brand new RoCocoa Cat Cafe, a sparkly new establishment that caters to children and the young at heart with iced and hot cocoa drinks of all kinds, delicious pastries, age-appropriate live music, and of course many friendly kitties who love to lounge in laps. The cats are of all shapes, sizes, and colors, including some who may look a little different from what you expect, or may look like an ordinary cat but are actually anything but ordinary underneath that adorable fur coat. All cats in the cafe are adoptable, too, if you meet a new furry friend and just can’t bear to go home without them!

So pull up a chair, get to know your new neighbors, and enjoy a sugary treat or two with the resident furbabies. You might just meet your new two- or four-legged best friend!

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Machine Connor, the one that didn't smash through his programming mere days ago, would have honed in on that clear reluctance and poked at it - because he's curious. Deviant Connor notices, is curious, and has enough social graces to just make a mental note and move on with the conversation.

He's not working, he doesn't need to know everything.

"I guess it's the same as with androids in some ways," he says, trying to put this in terms he understands more easily. Some humans just have magic programmed into them. "We're programmed to do specific things - I could try to learn to...I don't know, give lectures or fix other androids, but I'll never be as good at it as somebody who's programmed to do it."

Probably any human could learn to do those things if they were taught well enough and worked hard enough. Androids aren't quite the same in that way. He doesn't think so.

Are they?

He's frowning. Maybe he's just overthinking the whole thing.

Ven doesn't even see the cocoa, since he's on the floor, not at a real table, and his attention is very much taken with giving the rose goblin the attention it so clearly wants while not getting scratched or stabbed. The thorns aren't knife-sharp, but any kind of sudden movement could still drive the spikes into his hand, and that's not exactly something he wants to experience right now. But when Nida sits down, Ven glances up, not at all surprised by the strange cat-bird thing on his shoulder and willing to talk.

"You can't just someone by how they look. You've gotta judge someone by how they act inside." Glancing back at the rose goblin, he winces at a thorn stab and then smiles again at the woody mrrrt the creature makes. "Most people are good. You've just gotta give them a chance."

"Who says?" Nida asks, looking at the man very carefully. The android. "Who says you have to only be what they made you? Who says you can't be something more because you choose it?"

Because that's what Nida used to think. That he could only be the blade in the dark, only the spy and the killer. And here he's trying something else. It's harder to learn, it's harder to keep with, but he's trying. Trying with everything he can until he makes it better.

"It's about choice, because that's what we make. Choices keep moving forward. Keep going. Learn something new. It will be hard for you, like it's hard for the rest of us."

She jerks back for a second when she realizes the cat has no eyes, but another second later she's gently pulling the tail tips up and down in succession.

"Steph," she offers in return. "Honestly, I think I prefer my cats with a bit of peacock to them." She's seen a peacat or two here, but without a job she can't really afford to take in a stray.

Diarrhea-f Anne Frank!

[ He has that grin on his face. You know the one. ]

Yeah, I know.

[ He's bummed that he can't just charge in and fix everything, but it's really not that unusual for him these days. Life gets even more complicated as you grow up, apparently. And this isn't an ancient dungeon full of puzzles and dumb monsters. ]

I'll think of something... I've been in worse pickles than this, even without Jake, and we always find a way to save everybody in the end.

Yeah, man! It's cool, or rad, or whatever.

[ And math is cool. Although it can also be a bad thing. Really, inflection is everything. ]

I'm doing pretty good! I talked to a lot of humans at Founders Island, but it's still kind of crazy... I thought I was the last one for like, forever.

[ He's used to leaving people behind when he goes on adventures... and that's still all this is to him. Maybe it'll last longer than most of his adventures, but at some point it will end and he'll back home with all his friends. ]

Really? Ven, this is a book that the cover of should be judged. The contents can be judged too. But that doesn't mean the thing is any less painful.

"You just got stabbed by a thorn. I retain the painful comment. No matter how sweet he may be."

[He... really doesn't get it. And is left frowning.]

That's... creative.

[ At least he doesn't laugh at his own lame joke. The grin slowly fades, and suddenly this conversation is hecka awkward. ]

Thanks... Yeah. [ He looks away, and then down. ] Yeah.

BMO's cool. I've never used any other computers, though.

I can teach you, the ones here might not tell jokes as good as that. But they do have puns. The internet is full of puns. Usually about cats.

[ Don't encourage him, or he'll never learn ]

Yeah? Does everywhere have cats like this?

[Oh no, he needs puns. Puns are better than that joke. Please, Finn, learn puns.]

No, not everywhere. This place is special. It's selling point opposed to another cafe. People like cats but can't always have one."

He's frowning, but it's not because he disagrees.

"This is actually the first time I've ever thought about this," he says quietly. "I..."

Before he turned deviant, he had no doubts in his mind about what he would spend his entire existence doing. He would hunt deviant androids, complete his investigation, and probably be deactivated, studied and the information he gathered used to improve the RK900, his successor.

"I didn't have the choice until a couple of days ago. I was supposed to be deactivated," he goes on. "It never occurred to me I'd ever have to think about doing anything else.

"I don't even know what I'd choose."

He's only been a deviant a couple days, he doesn't need to have his whole life planned out immediately. But as his LED flickers between blue and yellow, it's definitely feeling like he has to.

"Peacock?" he asks, genuinely confused. He's guessing that's a bird - and he'd look it up if he could look up anything without getting nothing but cosmetic videos and cat pictures - but he can't even begin to picture anything more than that. Are they green? Who knows. What does this have to do with cats? No idea.

The cat finally decides to pay Steph some attention and turns to get in her face, sniffing at her nose. He's amazingly sure of himself for a cat that must be totally blind.

Math. Right. [He says this like he's going to be tested on it later - Connor isn't down enough with the kids for this. He knows the word 'cool'. It's never before left his mouth, but he knows it.]

You thought you were the last human? How come?

[He leans forward right as a blue, scaly cat decides it wants to get into his lap. Not about to let that stop it, the cat just jumps up and muscles onto his knee anyway, making Connor lean back a bit again, frowning down for a second.]

Come on.

[The cat ignores him.]

"Here's the secret. Neither do we."

And that's something no one tells you in the manual for living. That no one knows what they're doing. Some never figure it out. Some do and they're lucky. That's sort of what humanity is about these days. Trying to find purpose for yourself. IT can be long. it can be frustrating. But it can also be rewarding.

"Sounds like the perfect time to do research and take up some hobbies to me."

Aww. I guess that makes sense though.

[ He bends over to pet what looks like an adult male lion but reaches only as high as his seat. ]

I don't have time to be taking care of kitties when I've got to be looking for a way back to Ooo, no matter how cute they are.

Then visit here. There will always be cats.

[David doesn't expect a return visit himself, but he can respect those who would.]

Well I'd never met another one before, and nobody had seen any in like, hundreds of years probably.

"It's a kind of bird," she explains. It's hard to describe what exactly they look like to somebody who's never seen one before, so instead she turns to look around the room for one of the hybrids.

She points at a male across the room that looks immensely smug as a pair of paying customers admire him.

"That one, with the feathers? I used to have a cat like that, but a girl, so from the bottom of the neck down she was sort of brown and white. Shorter tail-feathers, too."

He taps the fin on his head. Now that the flerken has backed off, he's more comfortable in sitting down. And with the small kitten that runs to grab his ankle.

"It's called a Yaka arrow. I give it commands and it does what I want it to. For the most part."

He makes a so so motion.

"Been actin' a little funny since I come here."

Wanda's voice pulls Jason's attention forward. She looks vaguely familiar - maybe from Wonderland, maybe from the Village, maybe from both - but he doesn't think they ever spoke if they were in the same place at the same time, so it's probably not worth mentioning.

"Who, Selina? Just someone I know from back home. Has a thing for cats." He suddenly laughs and squirms as the kitten in his hood shifts to licking the back of his ear.

Heh, yeah, I might.

[ He really should be looking for ways home... ]

Later, though.

Oh - someone else is here. Jason's attention is pulled out of his grumbling thoughts about being surrounded by cats in an awkwardly social situation by Connor's voice. He doesn't have much up-close experience with AIs outside of the Iterations, so he doesn't immediately read Connor as android - just another guy stuck in this weird-ass city with the rest of them, apparently not thrilled with the location either.

"She's probably still causing trouble back home," he says, silently wincing as the kitten stretches out a paw and catches the back of his ear with its tiny claws. "But I guess y'never know, in a place like this. You just get here, or did you get conscripted into attending too?"

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kitty at my foot and i wanna touch it.

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sorry for my slowness, new event and busy stuff held me up

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