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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"I wish you all the luck," Nida says, and he genuinely means it. Squall deserves that happiness and warmth. "Give him hugs all the time."

"Teleportation? Yeah, that'd come in real handy. How do they do against fire?" That's one he's more familiar with, not that he's sure he can call it up here in Dualis. Worth practicing at some point.

He hummed thoughtfully, it still sounded cool, but limited. "Ain't exactly fast-paced combat magic, then. Interestin' all the same, ain't ever seen anything but a Sorceress teleport." Of course they could feasibly bend reality however they damn well pleased. Which was a big part of what made them so terrifying and dangerous.

Ah, is that sentiment he spies in that old blue face? It might just be. "Friend of yours, I'm guessin'?" He's never really sure how to deal with emotional stuff.

Rinoa's given him something he never had either. Filling that void he didn't know he wanted filled. He kind of wants to take her hand again. He's not sure when he started getting so sentimental and... clingy, but it's fine if it's with Rinoa right?

"It's... We're not the only ones here from home. There's Nida... and Seifer. They... were in another world before this. Taken like us. And you were there too."

Jason's been here long enough and seen enough people with implants and tattoos and futuristic fashion choices that he doesn't even blink at Connor's appearance and assumes he's human, or of a humanish race, at least. Takes all types to run a weird futuristic city, right?

"Jason," he says, by way of an introduction. "This your first time getting yanked arou-ow!"

The kitten strikes again, this time by taking a nibble at Jason's ear, which he's not expecting and causes him to jump, almost knocking over his chair.

Right. That crew.

"I... I ain't seen 'em in a while." That sentimental expression turns a little... mournful? Guilty? "Don't think I will be again. I'm one of those people that ain't really got a place to go when my year's up."

He doesn't elaborate, but last he checked he was an ice cube floating in space. Getting what he figures he deserved.

That's such a selfless response and Heather blinks in mild surprise, finding it somewhat endearing. She could never be so selfless, can't even really bring herself to try it. At the question, she gives a shake of her head,"Not really. I've met a few people but no one I know from home."

"It's... kind of the reason I come to this event despite really,really hating it." She smiles a little as if letting her in on a secret. If her dad were here, she'd never bother attending ever again. She prefers solitude over awkward conversations and generic attempts at getting to know a stranger.

[Well, that's weird. But Tim guesses that if there is a kingdom and people made out of candy, they would have to evolve to survive no matter what the weather, or there wouldn't be a Candy Kingdom anymore.

...He's honestly trying to figure out how a Candy Kingdom would come to be and not considering magic? Really?]

It does where I'm from. But I've never heard of a Candy Kingdom, so... maybe the rules are different?

With a soft sigh, and a long stroke over the cat in her lap as if it would take away some of the sting from the job, Alex just explains. "Basically? I look over the copy of the story and just like check it for grammar and any really glaring factual errors. But sometimes they don't even take those into account."

"Right - Iteration, wasn't it?" Until hearing that name, Connor had just assumed this was completely unprecedented - he's never heard of it, it seems impossible, how could it have possibly happened before? Now everything is unknown. Everything he knew totally upside down.

"Did you ever find out who took you there, or how?" Connor asks, leaning forwards - and idly petting the cat on the table, who's already purring under all the attention from them both.

Anything that needed investigating, huh?

[He finds himself grinning, just a little.]

So you were a bit like volunteer detectives with monsters. That sounds like fun.

[And he's not being condescending, he genuinely means it - Connor was a detective for no money, but it was with what turned out to be innocent people and he didn't get a choice. Choosing to go after bad guys because you want to help people? If he'd got the choice, that's what he'd have been doing back home.]

Steph can't help a snicker at the thought of a werewolf and a vampire sitting down to watch Frankenstein together.

"Matrix was pretty cool. Sequels didn't quite live up, but that really says more about the original than anything else."

People who have been here longer, perhaps those who chose to stay rather than going home, might have a better idea of what's up. Seifer tried to wheedle some information out of one such individual with limited success. Nothing they could use to get home came from that conversation, interesting as it was.

Her observation earns a shrug, along with a sip of cocoa. Mm, tasty. A nice way to make this slightly tense situation maybe a little less so.

"When all you've known is cages, what's wrong with a bigger one?" After all, Garden was a cage. She can't deny that. He did huff in amusement at her sentiment. Yeah, it was much better with friends. "Hey, at least we get outta the troubles we gotta deal with at home for a while." Think of it as a vacation, and then it doesn't feel as bad.

"I hope so too," he says, voice low but utterly sincere. "There was a revolution before I came here. Completely peaceful," he adds hurriedly, "but androids weren't going to let humans control them anymore. We- just didn't want to be slaves."

It took him so long to fully understand that, and when he finally did, he barely got to help and atone before it was taken away. It's a strange thing to have to let sink in, and he doesn't know how to react yet.

"I wanted to see what was going to happen." He frowns. "I wanted to finally help."

He did help - the revolution might not have been won without him - but...

"For people like that android - Daniel," he says, folding his arms on the table and leaning into them a little, weary all of a sudden. Odd how it's easier to say this to someone he's never met before who didn't even know what he was until a minute ago than it was to other androids, or his human partner.

"I've heard that before," he says, with a grin and the kind of voice that says he doesn't buy into such rumours. Connor's done very little actual climbing or falling in his time anyway. And that just cements his wanting to - it's new, he's never done it, what's stopping him?

"I'd really like that." And Connor's got absolutely no worries about sounding uncool or too eager or whatever a younger human might worry about, because he just sounds genuinely interested in trying out something new, with someone who doesn't give a damn or what he is. And that might be even more appealing than the new hobby.

Then the very obvious occurs to him.

"Uh, back home my serial number doubled up as my phone number," he says, now rummaging for the phone in his pocket.

Yet another reminder that humans had domain over every part of him, including getting into his brain to commandeer his attention whenever they wanted.

"Do we just swap phone numbers?"

Look, he's never had a phone before. Or friends.

Serial number? That makes Nida frown. The guy deserves better than that. He does hold his hand out to Connor, though, offering to take the phone briefly.

"I can put myself in there for you. And you're welcome to reach out whenever you want. Give yourself some time to adjust to things here, maybe make sure this is what you really want to do before we get invested in dangerous things."

[Hang around Aleifr enough, Finn, you'll discover he doesn't care about politeness in most situations.]

I'm missing mine too.

[He's still distracted enough by the cat that he doesn't realize the ambiguity of that statement for a moment. When he does, he shakes it off and finally turns to face Finn properly.]

Not my backpack. My weapon.

Edited 2019-09-08 18:05 (UTC)

Connor's about to speak...but then the kitten decides it has other ideas about their conversation and he looks down, a grin just reaching his face.

"Nice to meet you Jason," he says before he looks back up. "Uh, my first time doing what?"

He tries to sound like he isn't watching a kitten viciously attack his companion's ear, but no, this is the sound of a man trying and failing not to smile.

"When all you've known is cages, what's wrong with a bigger one?"

That hits home. Of course it does. Not just for her either. She understands where he's going with it, too. She might not be a student at Garden, but not unlike the SeeDs, she too has been in her own kind of cage. Life with her father has been a cage since the passing of her mother. She's still not old enough to realise that her father had good intentions, even if his methods were questionable.

Seifer continues and she finds herself issuing something of a half-smile. "Yeah. I guess that's true." She's not sure what kind of troubles will await them back home when they all return. A year of being away. Plenty can happen in a year. What happens in their worlds when they are all here, anyway...?

"Somehow I get the feeling that you're just going to find new trouble to jump headfirst into, right? You never were very good at standing still." Even with her. But that's part of the reason she's always liked him so much. When everyone else is too afraid to take action, she is.

"Yes. It was a village like this but primitive. You had taught me to use a bow, hunt and carpentry there." She pressed her lips together in a smile. "No matter where I go or what you remember, you are always yourself Clint. I will share it all with you in time." It was years so it wasn't exactly something she could recount all right now.

"But let's go somewhere else to talk. Do you mind stepping away from this?" She knew that he had arrived with a friend and she didn't want to pull him away when she knew that they likely wouldn't be coming back. There were other things she wanted to ask Clint about but this wasn't the place.

[She sits and smiles down at the kittens. They really are the sweetest things ever.]

I will look for myself. This place has many mysteries and I hope you don't mind me saying so but I do not trust our hosts.

"I see. So you're friends." It was a loose word but one that might cover whatever it was that David is to her son's without pressing the details of their relationship. She adored her son's but it wasn't her place to question their friends... technically.

"It's nice to meet you though."

Her lips pressed briefly together. "I get the sense that you aren't happy to meet me." She was different but Wanda could feel the tension electricity in the air. Perhaps something had happened, she really didn't know enough.

"Yes but I want to know what the government is doing and the best way to do that is to be close. I can also work to prevent needless death." At least in theory. "Doing nothing or avoiding it means that nothing will change for the better."

So she'd likely do both, part time.

"I want to be here. For them. But I am glad that you're here for them too." She smiled at Nida just as the bell rang for the stupid game to continue. Wanda sighed suddenly feeling tired. "I'd like to see them. Do you mind if I go?"

Friends is definitely the safest general description given the complication that was his connection to the twins. And he doesn't mind that either. They've been good friends and a positive impact on his life.

"We're friends. Known Billy longer, but somehow Tommy better for how little time I had to know him back in our world."

But then there's the other thing.

"More like I'm taking a moment or two to readjust personal biases. You're not the Wanda Maximoff of my world, and I want my opinions of you to be based on who you are and not my opinions on her and her history."

That's... a really good point and Nida raises his eyebrows, nodding along to it. Got to give her all the credit there. In fact, he absolutely approves.

"Go, go. We'll catch up later," Nida promises her, grinning. "Enjoy the work. I've got to get myself another drink and continue mingling. It's saving me from a really nasty return client at the shop."

Edited 2019-09-09 02:25 (UTC)

Of course he's talking about Garden, but he's fully aware of how it would apply to her as well. Seifer's no stranger to the strained relationship Rinoa has with her father. Probably wasn't much easier growing up as the daughter of a military man as it was growing up as a Garden student.

If they were lucky it would be like no time had passed at all. Then again, perhaps they'd be more fortunate if they simply disappeared for a while. Then whatever stories they had upon return might sound slightly less crazy. No one will believe them about this.

He put on a mock insulted display, really playing it up. "What? Me? Never. I'm a saint." Yes he almost managed to say all that with a straight face too! She's right, of course, he'll be in trouble in no time. For now he's keeping busy, it helps.

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